We are staying in Namche again tonight to help acclimatise, but went on a five hour trek around the surrounding villages.
We walked up to Kumjung and neighbouring Khunde (3800m), nestled in a valley overlooked by Mount Everest and surrounding mountains.
Kumjung is home to a very old monastery, which although lavished with paintings and lots of religious texts, is perhaps best known amongst trekkers for being home to the supposed only Yeti scalp! After a small donation, we were shown this artefact, which is said to be 500 years old. The rest of the village consists of green tin-roofed houses with small plots of land, divided by dry-stone walls much like in some national parks back home, except they squash yak dung on the walls to dry in the sun before it can be burned as fuel! The small allotments allow the Sherpa people to grow crops, notably potatoes.
Khunde is home to a hospital, founded by Sir Edmund Hillary in 1966. It is staffed by a doctor, nurse and a few healthcare workers who care for approximately 7000 people from the surrounding villages as far away as Phakding (which we passed on the first day). They also treat foreigners with acute mountain sickness or other ailments. The doctor on duty showed us around the well-equipped hospital, which was also much cleaner than Kanti! It would have been a nice add-on to spend a week there after the rest of the elective in Kathmandu, and I would certainly recommend this to other students thinking of spending their elective in Nepal
In addition to founding the hospital, Sir Hillary also founded a school in Khunde, and after his death in 2008, the local people showed their appreciation of his dedication to Sherpa welfare by erecting a memorial stupa in their village.
Before heading back to Namche, we went up to Everest View Hotel for a cup of tea – at 3900m, it is the highest 5-star hotel in the world.
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