From the journal
As I travel, I keep a journal. This post is straight from the source – documenting the moments as I experienced them. It has been recorded on the blog on the date it was originally written.
Tomorrow will be hard. Very hard. But we didn’t make it this far to fail. I’m less than 24 hours from putting my feet on base camp. And, under 48 hours from starting the trek home.
I’ll likely cry for both.
I’ll cry to talk with Aaron in Namche. I’ll cry to facetime him days later in Kathmandu.
I’ll sleep all the way home just so the flights go faster. And I’ll probably cry to see him when I get in the car.
I’ll definitely cry to see Ogi too. It’s not that anything here is truly bad – it isn’t. But I’m certainly a bit homesick and am incredibly overwhelmed by the abundance in my life.
Going back will be so strange.
First and foremost, you must understand these toilets. Tonight’s lodge is a perfect side-by-side of the options available.
Behind door #1, there’s a Western toilet – but don’t celebrate just yet. You have to hover over the seat because all the other hovering women have already peed all over it. Assuming you get the job done – in the freezing cold – now, you have to hover-wipe without dripping on your pants. If you manage that much, you can then toss your messy wipe into a box on the floor. And flushing? Well, there’s a giant barrel of water. You need to scoop some with whatever random vessel has been provided. Then, pour it right into the toilet. Probably 2-3 times. Fun, yea?
Door #2 is even more exciting.
Enjoy the not-so-hidden luxuries of the hole-in-the-floor toilet. All the same functionality of the Western toilet, only this time you get to squat low to the floor while attempting to aim for a narrow porcelain funnel. Miss it? You bet. So the floor is covered in the pee of a thousand failed attempts.
Despite it all, you still can’t wash your hands in the parasitic water – so all the clean up relies on a tiny bottle of hand sanitizer attached to your pack.
Best of luck.
My hands are too cold for this. Probably time for bed. At 8.