Middle aged explorers on the diggy diggy bey

About eight years ago when Chris and I climbed Mount Killimanjaro the local folks would occasionally turn to us and say "pole pole" - this translated roughly to "slow down you silly people,don't you know you're at altitude" or something to that effect. On the last day of the trek we asked our guide, Pema, what the term was in Bhutaneese for slowly slowly and he said (spelled with great inaccuracy) "diggydiggybey". This is very fun to say. They should put it on t-shirts.

The day after we finished the trek and the epic sleep we headed up to the Tiger's Nest monastery. This is the pictures that we got in the habit of showing people when they asked us why we were going to Bhutan, and while it was not permitted to take pictures in the monestary itself we got some great shots going up and coming down.

 We also had invented a new reality television show about ourselves called "Middle Aged Explorers" while we were out on the trek and it got a lot of airtime on the hike up and down from the nest. Most of the reality show involved us doing super mundane things - "this week on Middle Aged Explorers watch M and C and D climb over rocks. Next week on Middle Aged Explorers, see more rocks!"

The hike up was tricky at times, but not too bad. I think if my knees had not been jelly like and my lungs less grunkfilled it would not have been too bad. It was so worth the hike up the mountain. Lots of stairs, lots of rocks, but very worth it. Fortunately, after the trek the altitude was no problem at all.

That evening we got back to the hotel and packed up our stuff. The hotel was the first hotel in Bhutan and it is the height of 70s style. Unfortunately I got zero pictures of the place.

This morning we got picked up bright and early at 5:00am and headed to the airport for a 7:00 flight. We all got window seats in the right side of the plane. It turned out to be a prop job which was somewhat terrifyinging in theory but it was a smooth flight and the sky was clear enough to get a good view of Everest and other fine tall mountains. You really get a sense of the earth smashing itself together when you see the whole range from above. I am also fully convinced that it is a terrible idea to climb these things. 

We landed in Kathmandu where we can enjoy the crazy energy and make things up as we want to rather than being under the careful watch of a guide all the time. I have a room to myself tonight even though it was not my turn because I do a lot of coughing and would probably make a very irritating roommate. 

Tomorrow we get a full day in Kathmandu before we start the long trip home.