The Porters

Just a few words about the amazing Nepali porters.

Despite the heavy loads they carry on a daily basis, they are among the most cheerful people you could wish to meet. They smile, they laugh, they play Nepali music on their mobile phones and they can carry more than twice their body weight. I am really pleased to see that the majority of porters are now wearing shoes, trainers and boots, instead of the flip flops I saw last year. There has been a concerted effort by several agencies to ensure they have better footwear - although I could see that may were wearing sizes way too big for them!

 Here the porters are resting at Tenboche

Can you imagine carrying these home from B&Q or Home Depot!!

These chairs were on their way to Base Camp, all 23 chairs of them (I stopped to count!)
The porters are paid by the kilo and so they are encouraged to take on back breaking loads. I wish they had a different, but fair, system.