Day 2 Highlights
- Half an hour flight from Khatmandu to Lukla in a small twin otter old plane
- Stunning scenery
- Hike started
- Broken bridge added one hour of hike
- Real beauty started and so does the real test of endurance
DAY2 Travelogue
I couldnāt sleep the whole night, may be that was out of excitement or whatever. But early morning we are ready after taking bath in another room as the hot water didnāt work in our room, not that it worked in the other room either. But we are having our breakfast as the other trekkers are. Everyone is with bright eyes and is excited about their trekking plans, as everyone who is up right now is going to some trek in Nepal. Some are going to EBC (Everest base camp) or Everest Region, some are going to
Annapurna Circuit etc. Thakur is here and is also having breakfast with us.
We left for the airport in a taxi at 7am. The local terminal is really busy and filled with mostly westerners and some tourists like us and some local people. We are going to fly in a small twin otter plane that seats 18 people. What an experience that is going to be. Our flight is delayed due to something but we are sitting in the terminal to fly as we hear the call for our flight.
On the way to the airport Thakur made some drama and said his mother is very sick and he just received the message. He opted to stay back and would join us once weāll be in Namche Bazar, in the meantime he put us through to another guide. Later we got to know that we were actually sold out to a cheaper guide, and that fellow knew already that we were coming to Lukla. We were not expecting this from Thakur but we never wanted not to believe him when he told us about his mother. We had a doubt but had to shrug it off.
We are flying in this small and very old plane and it sometimes literally bounces in the air pockets. The plane seems to be very old, the seats are cloth jump seats as if these are from World War 2, the equipment is broken or about to break, and even pilots seats are all ripped off as I could see them from behind. It does have a GPS though that I think is an enhancement in the plane. We are sitting just behind the pilots and there is no door between them and us, there is a big opening and I could see all the controls and their usage. The views outside are amazing right from when the flight started. There are step fields and the area is really green and mountainous. We are really enjoying our mountain flight and are able to see some really tall mountains and stunning views. There are no announcements in the plane otherwise they would have told us the names of the mountains around and that would have been very nice. The only offering during the flight was some mint candy that tasted awful.
Landing in Lukla is an experience in itself, as this is a small strip in incline where the plane lands and barely stops before hitting the wall on the far end. The strip may not be more that 800 meters long and the slanting angel may not be less than 12 degrees. We are in a bit cold weather already in Lukla. We just met our new guide to whom we are being sold out by our original guide and our porter also who is always smiling. They are both young men. Our guide is Bhimsen Rijal and I donāt remember our porters difficult name as our guide who is Nepali couldnāt remember that either.
Our luggage is collected and we are sitting in a hotel/tea house having some tea and nice vegetable soup. After this we started our trek and we are obviously very happy and excited to make it this far in time after all the hiccups we faced since our journey started from UAE just yesterday. The trek is not hard as the first day we are only going to climb down 200 meters to Phakding for our first night. That doesnāt mean that there is no climb up, the mountains are never going up and down only, it is always a mixture of up and down and the resultant is the gain or loss of altitude at the end. So today we would be losing 200 meter altitude as a whole after all the climb up and down. We did buy water bottles before leaving Lukla and are now carrying two liters of water each. Lukla is 2800meters (9240 ft) above sea level and we plan to go over 5545 meters (18000 ft) above sea level in our hike at its highest point.
We have reached a check-post where they check the trekking permits and to our surprise Thakur forgot to give us the permits and now weāll have to make them again. There are nice 3d models of the Himalayan range at this center/check-post. It took half an hour to complete the formalities and we are back on the trek. The scenery has a lot of greenery, trees, vegetation that includes Chinese spinach, carrots, cabbage and potatoes. This is what these people eat every day along with lentils and rice, in the shape of Daal Bhaath.
There is a bridge broken by the earth quake that came a few days earlier and that has made the whole hill fall down on the way. Therefore there is an extra hour of hike around that hill. This is quite rough and tough as we have to go high up to cross this broken part. After about four hours of hike we have reached our Tea House (as these small guest houses are called in this area). The room (so called) is upstairs, the wooden stairs are really steep and the room is wood walls with wooden bed and thatās it, it is really small. The bathroom is bad and there is no water coming in the only tap. Though, the view of the river from the dining is great. We are really tired of our first day hike and are sure it will be getting extremely tough in the coming days. We rested for some time and then went out to see the village. Bhim took advantage and put us in the cheapest possible Tea House in the area, had we known earlier we would have protested but itās too late for today, will talk tomorrow. We took a lot of photos on the way and are taking some while walking through the village. There are quite a few Tea Houses in this village and there is a small river bisecting the village, the water is rushing down the steep slopes through the village falling way down into the bigger river. We are back in our Tea House and have ordered our diner. The old Sherpa lady is the owner of this place and is really polite. We sat outside for a while but then came inside as it is getting chilly now. Enjoying the landscape and river view from dining room windows. There is a platform to sit all around the room and then tables and then chairs on the other side. This is a regular set up in most of the dining rooms on the trek. There are guides and porters sitting in one side of the room and they eat after the guests have been served their food. Food is alright and we are satisfied with it today. Now the night is falling in. The night in the mountains is always very mysterious and falls quite early. It comes early in the valleys as the sun is blocked by the high mountains and you do see light in the sky but where you are it is dark. We are in our room telling each other stories in a bid to sleep. Iām not getting any sleep and this is creating problems for me during the day.
www.facebook.com/naturenoutdoors
