Day 203: Nepal Trek Day 1 – Lukla to Phakding
Today was a rough day for Lindsay. We were scheduled to fly into Lukla Airport – the world’s “Most Dangerous Airport” in order to start our trek. Even though she refused to watch the YouTube video of the 2008 Yeti Airlines crash which killed all 18 passengers when Igor tried to show it to her back in March, just knowing that it *existed* and that Lukla hasn’t exactly had a spotless record since made Lindsay extremely agitated. She tried to ask Igor if there was any alternative to the death-defying flight, but sadly there wasn’t – the road from Tibet still hadn’t reopened since the 2015 earthquake and the trek from Jiri (a 10hr bus ride from Kathmandu) would take 6-8 days. As a result, Lindsay’s only option was to grin and bear it…or cry uncontrollably for about 2 hours.
At the Kathmandu Domestic Terminal – Igor is giddy with excitement, but Lindsay is nervous, and makes sure her protective scarf from Samye Monastery is tied securely
Organized chaos at work again in Nepal – about 500 trekkers trying to check-in for their flights, unattended baggage lying everywhere, and handwritten boarding passes without our names on them. FILLED with confidence, here.
Our teeny, 19-passenger propeller plane, takes off from Kathmandu
Lindsay can’t keep it together during the flight – she bursts into tears each time she looks out the window. She dons her sunglasses, closes her eyes and tried to imagine she’s not on a death plane – she’s on a boat. A nice, safe boat which is already at sea-level, so it can’t fall of the sky and crash into a fiery inferno. Was that turbulence?!? No, that was just a gentle wave, rocking Lindsay’s imaginary boat…calm, be calm…
Amazing aerial shots during our flight to Lukla – while Lindsay had her eyes closed, Igor was loving every second, taking pictures and video the entire 30min flight
As the plane prepares to land, it doesn’t really need to “descend” – the Lukla Airport is perched on a cliff at 2,845m (9,334ft)
OMG – we made it! WE’RE ALIVE! Check out that ridiculously short runway!!! (at 527m it is the shortest in the world, in fact) Oh, and if you overshoot it or the brakes don’t work? There’s a sheer cliff at the end of the road, so you’d CRASH. See why Lindsay was scared?!?
Whether by the grace of God, the goodwill of Buddha, or the benevolent caprice of karma, we landed safe and sound in Lukla! We gathered our bag (given the mayhem in the Kathmandu Airport, we were shocked it managed to get on the same plane we did!) and headed into town to grab a bite to eat and a twinkly-eyed porter before heading off on our trek. Even though our itinerary would take 15 days, we were only allowed to ascend 1,000ft per day in order to acclimatize safely. As such, many days only have 3-4hrs of hiking before we had to stop for the night. Granted, we just flew in from the Tibetan EBC, so we had a head start on everyone else, but it’s still smart to follow the guidelines. We left Lukla around noon and reached Phakding around 3:30PM. We had quite a bit of downtime in our room before dinner – at least we had Edge Data to kill the time!
Once we collect our bag (thankfully, it made it on the same plane as we did), we walk into the small town of Lukla and grab a very early lunch while Phurba hires a porter for our trek
Our new team heads down the main street in Lukla, standing aside for passing khainags (a yak/cow hybrid popular in Nepal)
We stop at the police check-point to show our travel permits before officially stepping onto the trail
Unlike Tibet (which is in a rain-shadow and therefore almost always sunny), the Nepalese side of the Himalayas is often covered in thick clouds – however, October is supposed to have the best weather so we cross our fingers that the clouds part every now and then and we don’t get any rain
Hiking the Everest Base Camp Trek and enjoying the high mountain scenery
Although Nepal is technically a “Hindu Kingdom,” the people who live in the Himalayan region are predominantly Buddhist, so the path to Everest is full of stupas, prayer wheels and mani stones
We pass through many cute mountain villages during our trek – one section of the trail is decorated with repurposed paint can/flowerpots, and a khainag (AKA “dzo”) peeks over a stone wall
We wait for a herd of dzo to cross the cable bridge before walking across to our tea house accommodation for the night
Since it’s the high season, Phurba’s first choice tea house is already booked, so we end up in the “overflow” rooms. While it’s very bare bones, we have an ensuite bathroom (no hot water) and no neighbors, so it’s nice and quiet
The tea house has a brownout during dinner and brings out a half dozen battery-powered lanterns – at least they don’t need electricity to cook up some fried rice!