About half way between Lama Hotel and Ghode Tabela, at 2,770m, Kaisang Sherpa comes out of the trailside lodge singing a song.

It is the current folk hit, Bheda ko oon jasto, and Kaisang's breath comes out in puffs of vapour in the cold air as he sings. "We learned it from friends who sing it around here, it's a fun song, but more from the Helambu side. Here, we sing Tibetan songs," he tells us. Kaisang hadn't heard of the Nepathya version from the documentary of the same name, which was filmed on the other side of the mountain from here in Gosainkunda, or the one released earlier by Deepesh Kishore Bhattarai, so we decided to test both songs to see which one he liked.

He listened intently on the earphones to Bhattarai's version and repeated the line likening the sweet taste of Kanchi's cheek to the apples of Syabru. He seemed more distracted during Nepathya's version and later confessed: "I like Bhattarai's one better. It's more like the original."

Kaisang then goes back to his kitchen chores, launching into his own version: "Bheda ko oon jasto."