A Spot of Local Colour

On our second extra day in Namche Bazaar, we took the opportunity to take in a bit of local colour. There was plenty to be found beside the stream at the town laundry. It was a real hive of activity and it taught us a valuable new lesson: that life can be lived without an automatic washing machine and you can have a much more sociable experience going to a shared laundry facility.


We ourselves had taken along a bit of washing to do, but we were quite happy to sit in the sun and wait our turn. Our friendly banter, conducted mostly in sign language, with the locals, backfired against us, when some of the local children took such a shine to us that they made a grab for us and demanded 'give me doll'. What an insult! Neither of us have anything in common with a doll and we have no plans for a sex change.

As the grubby hands reached out for us, we had to take a running jump into minders bags and leave them to tell these children, in no uncertain terms, that no doll was coming their way. Hopefully they will have learnt an important new English word as a result of this encounter, that of 'bear'.

A little while later, while we were having a noodle soup lunch back at the tea house, Saila one of our trekking crew arrived. He'd left the main group to come back for us, and to see if were going to be fit enough to resume the trek and join the rest of the group the next day. Happily, the verdict was a positive one all round.

Faced with the prospect of leaving Namche the next day, we made the most of our last afternoon there, doing some Christmas shopping (Namche doesn't have Bazaar in it's name for no reason)and exploring some more of the local footpaths.


It's amazing what you get to see as you stroll about. We visited the local monastery and had a tour round with the monk, and then, not much further along the path, we saw this cockerel with an unusual perch. We've heard of guard dogs but not guard cockerels!

Lots of love George & Yorkie xxx