1 April: Monastery to Nar (4100m) to Manastery to Meta MI: poor sleep again last night. We've started rating everything out of ten (sleep quality, dhal Bhat, motion consistency). Chris is ranging from 2-6, John is an 7-9.5, Harms range is 4-9, I'm 2-6 also. Common complaints that receive zero sympathy are: hard mattress, needing to wee all the time due to Diamox, snoring (freight train Boerema), too hot, too cold, blocked nose, breathing irregularity. Thankfull...

Phu to Monastery MI: today we head backdown to the Monastery that is across the valley from Meta. Although the Monks are not there Gobinda reckons we can stay. We see Tibetan Snow c*** ( a type of Pheasant) in the fields below us as we leave the village. We reckon Harm was probably the tallest man ever to visit Phu! The trail from Phu has a really step downhill so we tread carefully. At the bottom there is a large new slip across the trail that provides a re...

Phu R&R Day JB :Well God said on the seventh day let people rest, or something along those lines so, being Sunday we did, sort of. A day exploring Phu village and generally taking in the surroundings. This is the most incredible, interesting and dramatic place. I feel honoured to be able to experience, all the more so when Gobinda said last year the total visitors to this valley were 169! We started the day by walking down to the river to "wash" our clot...

Meta (3560) to Phu (4080) JB:Started out at 8.00, was supposed to be 7.30 but all a bit slow after yesterday. Initially relatively flat with great views across/down the valley to the monastery that we will staying in in a few days. there is big new monastery with the old one further down the slope. New one built for the sun! We then went for a long period of "Nepalese flat" before coming across a deserted village (Chyk) where the people of Phu relocate for wi...

Koto (2600) to Meta (3560) MI: nice walk to Chame yesterday. Passed one place that had a couple of groups of people playing cards for money, and a smaller group playing a board game. We also saw a group of langur monkeys sunning themselves on rocks on the road side. The others started taking Diamox yesterday to assist with altitude, particularly sleeping, but the ironic thing is the side effect is needing to pee, so there were many visits to the toilet during t...