Hold On To Your Hats. It’s Gonna Be A Bumpy Ride….

Lukla Airport

4:20 AM:  We brought our gear bags down to the hotel lobby, where we were handed a boxed breakfast of: small apple, 2 small bananas, croissant, box of orange juice, cheese sandwich and 2 hard boiled brown eggs with a salt packet.  We had tea in the Garden Restaurant while awaiting our bus.

After a bumpy ride to the Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu (KTM), our bus let us off just outside the domestic terminal.  Ted pointed to a stack of duffel/gear bags and told us to pick any duffel and carry it into the security check line.  I was randomly handed my own duffle bag.  There was some confusion about from which scales the bags would be weighed, necessitating us to move the bags from one counter to another on the other side of the room.  While the bags were being weighed, I met the Colorado Family.  Dan is the father of sons, in birth order, David, Craig and Frank.  Dan had trekked to Mount Kilimanjaro and rode in Mongolia with Trekker.

Our plane was a small 20 to 25-seater, 3 seats across, with one flight attendant, whose main duty was to pass along a small basket of hard candy to passengers just before the plane was airborne.   The flight to Lukla was turbulent and bumpy, peppered with fabulous views of the snow capped mountains of the Himalayas through hazy Plexiglass portholes.

Lukla’s landing strip was a single tiny airstrip along the side of the top of a hill.  Outbound flights run downhill.  Annie instructed us to stay by the plane after disembarking for a group photo, but the military guard on the tarmac ordered us off the tarmac, as well as prohibited us from taking photographs.

We gathered in a small restaurant next to the airport for some Sherpa tea (black tea, sugar and milk, very much like a mild chai).  While our duffels were sorted, wrapped and taken by sherpas, we geared up and applied sunscreen, etc. in the courtyard outside the restaurant.

Trekking through the village of Lukla via the main street, we passed a Starbucks Coffee Store, which necessitated a photo stop.  The town may be too small for a McDonalds, but not too small for a Starbucks.

Along our way to Phakding, we stopped for lunch in a small town.  We waited on the deck of this small town’s restaurant, sipping mango tea while we waited for our lunch.  Trekker’s kitchen crew treks ahead of us to a designated/contracted restaurant, where Trekker’s kitchen crew borrows the restaurant’s kitchen to prepare our meals using Trekker’s ingredients.  This arrangement ensures sanitation and consistent quality of our meals.

We continued trekking to Phakding, passing a monastery tucked away high up in the Kusam Jang Mountain.  We trekked up/down/through the Himalayan range and its small villages, crossing steel suspension bridges, passing fields of potatoes, wheat, grazing cattle and sharing the trail with locals.

I really struggled this first day of major trekking.  I did not train hard or long enough in the months after signing on, despite what I knew of my previous trek to Mount Kilimanjaro.  Ted reminded me that I was on vacation and I shouldn’t be breathing so hard.  He checked my backpack, which he deemed was too full of gear.  I was only supposed to take what I needed for a day’s trek – not a week.  He estimated that I was carrying 30 to 35 pounds and should only be carrying about 15 pounds max.  Could it be the 4 liters of water, the full toiletries bag, medical kit, a change of clothes, some food, a reading book, journal and camera gear?

Phakding is at 2790 M (=9,155’), our lodge is at 2860M (=9,381’).  Many of the male trekkers wore watches with altimeters.  There was always an amusing session of the guys trying to calibrate their altimeters to match the signs in town or each other.  No two altimeters registered the same altitude.

Upon reaching Phakding around 2:00 PM, we gathered in the courtyard of our lodge (the Sunrise Lodge and Restaurant) while our duffel bags were delivered to our rooms.  Senior Guide Ming assigned our rooms and distributed our keys.  Just after settling into our rooms, sherpas delivered aluminum bowls of hot water, which we used for a “bird bath” to wash away the day’s sweat and trek dust before evening tea.

Our first medical (med) check was conducted between tea and dinner.  We were instructed to visit Ted and Annie in their room.  The med check consists of finger pulse oximeter, which measured one’s blood oxygen saturation and pulse rate, and a series of questions designed to identify symptoms of altitude sickness.  I recalled that on the Kilimanjaro trek, my heart rate was always a concern for my guide, because it was very high.  Ted told us that we should not focus on our numbers, as they are just guidelines for Ted and Annie.

Before dinner was served, Annie presented each trekker with a Trekker 2010 Everest Base Camp wristband.  I noticed some of my fellow trekkers were wearing wristbands bearing Trekker Kilimanjaro.  It must have been a new tradition that Annie launched.

After dinner, Ming introduced the sherpas with an explanation of the origin of names (day born + boy/girl name + caste).

With dinner cleared away, freshly boiled water was offered for refilling our hydration packs for tomorrow.  From there, we went to our respective rooms to rest for tomorrow’s trek.