It's a Marathon of Life: Everest Base Camp & Kala Patthar 07-23.05.2011 (8)

14May2011 - Dingboche (4400M) > Lobuche (4930M)
It is the most healthy life style I have had in recent years. Sleep by 9pm, woke up at 6am for breakfast and started to move on 7am. AMS still stubbornly suppressing my appetite. Going towards Lobuche, 4930m. Every step after 4095m (Mt Kinabalu's peak) is a record breaking height for me. Once we passed a village at the start, we reached a vast flat land. All the 7000m mountains were at 2x zoom closer than they were. We were ascending gradual at comfortable gradient and pace until we reach Dughla (4620M) for lunch. Discovered a fantabulous spring roll that managed to penetrate my tastebud. With help of an extremely spicy chilli source, it further stimulated all the senses in my head. I felt like all the long trapped air within my head 'ejaculated' out from every poles! What a sensation it was. It made us felt that it had cured our AMS instantly. After that, a tough climb with a straight steep route ahead.

There were some giant memorial stones along the way. Name of fallen everest climbers were crafted as a respect to those who lost their life. Prayer flags were all over that special place. I humbly asked for safety blessing silently to the whole team. Ordinary ppl like me might question the worthiness of losing ones life while attempting the summit quest. But I believe they did it after they had found something meaningful to achieve in their life while well aware of the risk. It should be the same type of explorers who are working with NatGeo currently, letting us seen all those fascinating pictures comfortably at home, with 42' LED TV.

At abt 2pm, all of us reached Lobuche. Met a helper in the restaurant who speaks Malay. Amazing! He worked in malaysia before as security guard. Later in Kathmandu, we found even more Nepalese who speaks Malay. Glad to know most of them managed to cari makan in Malaysia and back to their own country to settle down.

Appetite had evaporated once again at lunch and dinner. For me, same strategy. Just ate the egg white. I hate to rest in this trip. Rest = idle = no energy burning = COLD! Especially at such altitude. It was the toughest time to pass. At night, Raj did a briefing abt the big day tomorrow, Gorak Shep and the ultimate EBC! It was the big day for 5 of us. All looked in great shape except Ailing who was with a mild headache. A rest should do a great favor to her.