Life in Sama

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Tomorrow we head to base camp so today was just hanging around. Base camp is about 4,000 ft higher altitude, so we’ll see how the headaches go.

So spent the day strolling around Sama (doesn’t take very long) and visiting the monastery. It seems a lot of time so far has been visiting monasteries and shrines.

Life is very different here, to our experience on the western, or first, world. Life is hard, mostly manual labour, although women seem to do more than a significant share. You see mean as more craftspeople – masons, carpenters, trekking guides, but also porters. Despite this hard life style, there appears a contentedness, people are friendly, smiling, always greeting with “Namaste”, people gather in groups and chat. It’s like 75-100 years back in time. However, cellphones are prevalent, and you can get a cappuccino in a local cafe!