Dawa Chowling Gompa, Tengboche Monastery, Nepal

For any of you who have made the trek to the Mt Everest Base Camp from Lukla in Nepal, I don't need you to tell me that you'll never forget Tengboche. It's a given. This small community is dominated by its Buddhist temple and Monastery, Dawa Choling Gompa, and it sits on a fantastic ridge, sometimes in the clouds at almost 4000m, where the air is already thinning.

There are tea-houses for weary trekkers to eat and sleep, and it's possible to wake early and join the monks for their morning prayers and rituals, which is something to see in itself. Normally, when I finished my days walk I was happy to sit and relax. But here in Tengboche, I dropped my pack, ate, and snapped up my camera for a lengthy wander, around the temple and up the ridge for vantage points.

Still perhaps 3 days walk from the base camp, the mighty mountain was clearly visible from Tengboche, the wind often whipping snow off of its summit. If you ever get the chance to go, you must go.