My trek to the Everest Base Camp-Part 5.

Our trek on that 1^st day was brief and mostly in the ‘easy’ category. It was already past sunset, and the scenery did not register. We walked for about an hour and a half, till darkness was upon us. At the hamlet of Thado Kosi, by the banks of a side stream of the Kosi River -known as Thado Kosi as well - we made our first night stop at a tea-house.

Across several popular trekking circuits in Nepal, tea-houses spring up like bubbles of civilization in a vast mighty ocean of ever changing scenery. More frequent at first, and then as you begin to reach higher, in smaller clusters-occasionally companionless even - with vast expanses of just ethereal landscape in between.

Tea-houses are the trekking equivalent of high-way rest-stops in the days of the horse driven carriage. Unlike modern hotels, they are not destinations in themselves, and are built for one specific purpose: giving trekkers a place to rest their feet for the night. Teahouses provide food -which is mandatory to buy from there - and board. With just 2 slightly hard –narrow single beds to each room, no storage, very dim lighting, no heating, certainly no TV and even no attached toilet or shower (usually), the bedrooms could easily pass off as modern day prison cells! Not surprisingly, getting romantic in a typical tea-house bedroom takes so much creativity and hard work, you could guess the age of a marriage by putting a married couple together in  one.

The typical teahouse bedroom.

                                        

 

The toilets are usually shared across several rooms. With some luck, they would be inside the teahouse, not outside. And would have lighting. With a lot of luck – there would be no squatting required, the flush would work. Tissue Paper?-Carry your own. Running water in the toilet?  - An Unattainable Fantasy. At several places enroute – typically day-stops for tea/lunch – the toilets were ‘organic’ and dry i.e. holes in the middle of a wooden platform with dried leaves below and around the platform. My childhood experience with Holding It All In proved rather useful through this journey.

Organic Toilet. Not all toilets were this bad.

Showers came in the category of ‘extreme luxury’. Just like laundry. Which was good, because fresh laundry is only necessary if you shower. Every 2^nd or 3rd or 4th day. Old Trekking Rule.

If you are like my husband, and can shower in ice-cold water off the glacial stream, you could enjoy your shower ever so often. But if you are a bit fussy like me and need running hot water, then you just waited. To reach that odd teahouse which would provide this luxurious service at a cost twice the room rate. Spoilt Urbanite.

You did your own laundry. And hung it on your backpack as you walked. In the cold, with the sun shining on it. How did it all dry? We bought all ‘Quick Dry’ clothes, remember?

But we digress. Back to the teahouse. The soul of the teahouse is its dining area. A global melting pot where kindred souls congregate after the day's journey. The only space to emanate warmth in cold environs. From the room heater in the centre of the room of course-, but also from the laughter, cheering, chatter, eating and drinking going on there. This is where stories were exchanged, temporary attachments formed, maybe even some lifetime friendships made. Memories were made in these dining rooms, because this is where every evening was spent- in different neighbourhoods, with different companions- but here, none the less. We met several interesting people at the various tea houses enroute : a Polish couple, an American entrepreneur, a young woman from Alaska, a Turkish executive, but the best were saved for the last.

Just like everything else in life, not all teahouses are made equal-neither are the tea-house owners. The smaller,basic, teahouses -with maybe half a dozen rooms- were run entirely by family members- the wife doing the cooking, the daughter serving you dinner, the man of the house taking your dinner order, maybe. These were impoverished dwellings of people struggling to make ends meet-  income they earned from the tea-house during season, would be needed for sustenance in the off –season months.

The larger tea-houses have made their owners dollar millionaires. Many times over.  With several dozen rooms (including the odd room with attached bath) - and several ‘extras’ (hot water shower, laundry service, shop to buy odds and ends, bakery, laptop rentals) , and with a large staff running the place,  these  little islands of comfort attract the best and the wealthiest of the trekkers. I  discussed with one teahouse owner how much money he made in 6 months of climbing season each year - it was a little under half a million dollars ! Not all hamlets/rest stops have these larger teahouses though- they occur only in villages that are considered acclimatization points – places where trekkers will stay an extra day to get used to the altitude.
Only a few tea-houses met either extreme, and most landed up somewhere in between.

The one we stayed in ThadoKosi was not a usual night-stop as per the tour book-and hence amongst the more basic ones. And we were the only guests for the night. We had our first meal of Dhal-Bhat (Lentil-Rice). Basic, bland, and on our first day, still welcome.

We went to bed early. We would need the rest. With over 1000 meters of vertical climb, Day 3 was going be hard. Very Hard.