The Monastery at Tengboche

Curiously enough, this was a rather flat experience

...because there were no monks around apart from one inside the main building, who was intoning the prayers.

He was nearly falling asleep, so every so often the voice would begin to tail off. Then he would suddenly jump and the volume would increase again.

We took lunch here at a tiny lodge where the cook (a boy) allowed us to sit in that most holy of holies, the kitchen (the only warm place).

The best garlic soup and dahl bhatt that I have tasted soon followed, with as many ‘seconds’ as you wanted. (This is the sort of service that the Sherpas and porters sometimes get, but they usually have to wait for it until all the clients have been fed).

We then had an easy half hour's downhill walk to a lodge with a great atmosphere in a pretty place called Deboche.

Soft-focus at Tengboche, with Everest and the Lhotse-Nuptse massif behind