Nomad Tents at Everest Base Camp
Everest Tent Camp is a group of yak fur tents besides Rongbuk Monastery. Tibetans from Tashi Dzom and other nearby villages run the nomad tents like small hotels from April to October.
The nomad tents of Everest Tent Camp are cozy and warm despite the altitude and cold air. Each nomad tent is run by a local Tibetan family. You are sharing their temporary home.
The nomad tents usually have 7~8 benches that doubled as the beds at night - all surrounding a fire fueled by yak or sheep dung. Surprisingly there was no stench!! There is no running water, but each nomad tent usually gets water from the local snow-melt stream and have a barrel in the tent. Food was cooked over the same fire and was surprisingly tasty.
The nomad tent has electricity available during the daylight so that you can charge your mobile phone here.
The nearby public toilets are the standard squat over a hole in the ground. Take plenty of toilet paper, wet wipes, and hand gel as there is no running water or electricity to be found.
There is a post office there, where for a 10 CNY fee, you can mail your EBC ticket (which doubles as a postcard). If you want more postcards, you can pay quite a hefty fee (50 CNY) to buy one from the post office.