Before I went for this trip – a 17-day trekking trip to Cho La Pass, Nepal – I have no idea of what or how lodges and teahouses along the treks look like. All I know is that they provide food and accommodation, much like a hotel, minus the luxury and comfort which are normally expected.
Let me share with you what I have experienced to expand your horizon. Dotted along the main trails of Cho La Pass are lodges and teahouses (herein “lodge” refers to teahouse also). They can provide anything from a cup of tea to a full meal and a bed. So for the entire trek, there is no need to carry food or shelter (camping tents). However, every trekker is recommended to carry his drinking water while trekking.
Lodge along the treks with display of drinks (Coke, water, beer).
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The level of comfort and facilities in the lodges are meeting basic requirement. For sure, there is no heater in bed room as the solar energy is only used to power lighting.
Every lodge has a kitchen, a dinning room and bed rooms for a night’s stay. Oh yes, not forgetting the toilets – located in between rooms and individual detatched unit outside the lodge. Bathroom is usually outside the lodge.
Bed Room – Depending on the size of a lodge, the number of bed rooms range from five (small lodge) to say, 20 (big or new lodge). Most rooms have two beds in them with a 4-inche mattress. Certain bed rooms have no blanket! It is important that each trekker must bring along his sleeping bag.
Time-warp heater - Other than wood, it is also powered by dried Yak dung. Interestingly, it is odourless that you won't know the different fuel. Otherwise, the smell does not go down well with the food.
Dining Room – It is usually square in shape with a barrel-shaped metal heater in the middle. The tables and long benches are lined at the side near to the window; so that there is space in the middle and next to the heater. Most dinning rooms have glass window so that trekkers can admire the mountainous or lakeside view. The best view is in Dole (4,200 meters high; fronting the magnificent mountains) and Gokyo (4,800 meters high; fronting a beautiful and serene lake).
In the evening, the ower would "activate" the heater and the entire room was filled with warmth of the fire. The lady lodge owner at Gokyo, in her forties, speak quite good English. In the evening, we saw her collecting the dry Yak dung. The action was much like harvesting pineapples. She carried a big basket and she just threw the dried dung over her head into the basket behind her.
Dinning Area in Gokyo -- with patio overlooking the beautiful lake
Meals – Meals are ordered from menus in English. There is standardisation as most menus look similar and consistent in interpretation. The main categories are breakfast, lunch or dinner, drinks, western style cooking, etc. It is very common that we have to wait for almost one hour for lunch or dinner to be served. Food is only started to prepare and cook after orders have been received. Usually, the mountain guides double up to assist in taking orders. They will write down the order in a thick log book and they then convey the orders to kitchen. Every lodge has a person-in-charge (mostly women; can be husband and wife team. But in Dole, the men are in-charged) who cook for the trekkers.
Mega carbo-loading - Kumar (second mountain guide) and Pani (one of the porters) having lunch at Khumjung. The rice in second serving is as much as the first.
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Foods - when we go higher up in the mountains, there is no meat. They don’t kill animals and meat is only carried up from lower villages. When we travelled deeper into the Himalayan, we become almost vegetarian. However, eggs are still available. So, my usual meals are potato fried with vegetable and carrot that go with rice. They do have fried rice and fried noodles.
For breakfast, I usually eat toast bread, pancake or Tibetan bread (variant of fried pancake). The Austrian guy team member always ordered Tibetan bread for breakfast; so I joked that it is the "standard procedure" for him in the morning. Since the source of water is from high mountains and food is cleanly prepared and properly cooked; so it is very safe to consume.
Another favourite is the vegie momos - steam dumplings akin the dim sum.
My breakfast at Nanche Bazar - Tibetan bread with milk tea. The egg is an extra order from the original menu.
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Beverages – We order hot chocolate, milk tea (something like our teh with milk but very plain taste), and ginger tea. As you can see, the food is very simple here, how not to loose a few kilograms of my weight?
Wash Basin – Most lodges overlook the importance of wash basin. They do not have a wash basin for trekkers to wash hands or to brush teeth, etc. So we have to squat at the open-air tap in freezing cold to brush teeth.
Brushing teeth in the cold morning - Mr. Rum (main mountain guide) in action right in front of the entrance of lodge in Pheriche
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Toilet and Bathroom - every lodge (or tea house) has a toilet in between rooms so the trekkers can pee at night without having to go out in the freezing cold. Bathroom, however, is usually located outside the lodge, say, about 20 meters away. Bathroom is used for taking bath during day time only as temperature is cold.
With the abundance of mountain water, the owner usually uses a rubber host to divert the water near to the lodge. But the water is cold. At Machhermo (4,410 meters high) while I wanted to brush teeth in the morning, the running water in the tap was frozen into ice !! BTW, I never use the wide-mouth bottle (recommended by a trekker) that I bought specially for peeing at night since the toilet is quite near to the rooms. Eventually, I gave it as a gift to one of the porters when we returned to Lukla.
Oh Yes, not forgetting the following critical crew members who form the entire team. They were friendly, committed and dedicated in thier work.
Mountain Guide – They speak reasonable English. In this trip, there were two: the main guide (Mr. Rum) and the second guide (Mr. Kumar). One will lead and the other one will be the last person when trekking. They are always very happy to answer our queries on the various landmarks. If we slowed down to take photos, the “sweeper” guide will wait.
Mr. Pani in action - the red bag belongs to Klaus (the Austrian senior army officer) and mine is the green bag while Pani's is on top. Estimated weight: 50 kg
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Porter – Crew members to carry our luggage. They are very strong. One porter can carry the luggage of two trekkers. Without the need to carry our luggage, our backpacks are light consisting of drinking water, camera, extra warm clothing and a few energy or chocolate bars.
By KC
Yours truly standing in front of a lodge in Manjo (first evening). This is my attire for sleeping. We arrived at 5:30 p.m. It was very cold. After a quick "dry cleaning", dinner was ready at 7:00 p.m. and we went to bed at 7:30 p.m. That was my record for sleeping so early.
Namche Hotel in Namche Bazar (in red roofing) - this is the only "town" along the entire trek where there is attached bathroom with hot water supply
High up in the hill - Lodge in Khumjung
Overlooking the unique Khumjung village. Notice all roof are in green
Lodge in Dole overlooking high mountains
Lodge in Machhermo - detatched bathroom and toilet at left. Snowing at 3:00 pm. Tap water turned into ice the next morning
