Today was wonderful! After a delicious breakfast of aloo parantha (I guess it's like an indian quesadilla filled with potato) we set off with only our day packs and walked around for over three hours. We tried to get to some lookout points of Everest before the clouds set in but were unlucky, and too late. Guess that's what we get for sleeping in till 6:45!

The altitude is definitely felt here. Walking uphill gasses me like nothing else. But the fact that is freaking me out so much, and it shouldn't considering I understand the human physiology of high altitude, is that my resting heart rate has increased from about 60 beats per minute (bpm) to about 95bpm! Climbing up a set of stairs normally may get my heart rate up to 80bpm max but here it went up to 160bpm! It's really tripping me out. But I feel fine so that's good. Except that it is so bloody hard to climb up anything; I feel so weak! I'm also starting to get over my illness. No fevers,and the body aches are gone but now I have developed a nasty cough, which I've not had something similar in years. From what I read, it likely won't get better. Oxygen is required for healing and we are only going higher.

After our walk we shared some veg momos (of course) and a Thukpa (light noodle soup). Damian then really wanted to go to the local bakery and omg his chocolate "croissant" was amazing. Of course it was nothing like a croissant, more like sweet bread and chocolate. I'm going back tomorrow for a cinnamon roll! It was definitely one of our most expensive treats so far, at 3USD.

After lunch we watched a biography on Sir Edmund Hilliary, the first man to climb Mount Everest in 1953. He was a 33 year old New Zealander and he summited with Sherpa Tenzing Norgay. An amazing man, Hilliary was. After his summit he spent the rest of his life involved in Nepalese philanthropy, organising the building of dozens of schools and hospitals. I already knew this before the movie but it was quite touching and I learned a sad and interesting fact. Sir Hilliary's wife and daughter died in a plane crash on their way to meet him in Nepal, where he was building a hospital in the Khumbu region, leaving Hilliary and two other children behind. Years later his best friend also died in a plane crash, on a plane Hilliary was supposed to be on. 15 years after his wife died, he married the widow of his deceased best friend.
Today we went to the Sherpa museum. The first part of the museum was meant to mimic a Sherpa house. And with rats crawling on the wall and an entire wall stacked neatly with yak dung waiting to be burned, I reckon it was similar to some of the poorer Sherpa houses. In the last fifteen years though, with the boom in Himalayan tourism, Sherpas live much better. Namche, where we are staying, is the biggest of all the villages, reminds me of a mountain town in Italy or Switzerland. But nowhere near as nice or luxurious. For here in the Khumbu region of Nepal, there are absolutely no roads. Yaks, donkeys, and Sherpas carry everything in and out.

I'm excited to report that tomorrow we take another "rest day". I use the quotations because Damo wants to go on a five hour hike to some monastery, bypassing a fancy hotel (apparently this hotel costs $150 a night and has a BATH*!) that boasts views of Everest, thus called Everest View Hotel. I'm trying to talk him out of it but I fear the effort will be futile. I just want to relax, play cards, and read tomorrow. We'll see who wins this one.

*I have not showered four days. I think tomorrow will be a good day for one, but it costs FOUR DOLLARS!!