The flight itself took about 45 minutes. After we landed and disembarked, the colder temperatures could instantly be felt. Views of snow-capped peaks were visible.
There were a number of Sherpa huts and lodges providing accommodations. Lukla is at an elevation of 2800m or 9186 feet. It is a fairly large village and the most popular base for trekking in the Khumbu region. Days could be spent hiking and visiting the Sherpa villages, Thyangboche Monastery, Khunde Hospital, Khumjung Hilary School and trekking towards the Everest Base Camp.
We settled into a lodge and ordered food. Dawa was busy getting our two Sherpa Guides and our three porters. We had time to walk through the village. This was actually Dawa's home town and where his wife lives. Rob and I walked down the airstrip and waited hoping to get pictures of the next flight in. The airstrip is right on the edge of a cliff, so I'm sure it can be a thrill to land in a plane there. I learned Rob is a computer programmer. While we waited, we saw several young men carry huge bundles of wood on their backs past us. We didn't get our pictures before it was time to eat. Two more helicopters had come in.
We ate around 11:00 AM. I had tomato soup and vegetable fried rice for 100 rupees. A bottle of water had become four times as expensive here since all of it has to be carried up on the backs of people or animals. The last bus stop was in Jiri which was about a week's trek away.
Our Sherpa guides were Lapka and Mingmaw. Our porters were Buddhi, Bag and Dil, who seemed to always wear his wool hat. I was surprised at the tennis shoes they wore. They seemed to be quite comfortable in them despite the rugged path we would be on and the loads they would be carrying. I later heard that Peregrine had offered to give them boots, but that they had declined the offer.
Then, ... we were off. We followed the course of the Dudh Kosi (which literally means Milk River from all the white water) high up the valley wall overlooking the beautiful green valley below. We were on the east side of the river, but we would cross it often. The trail would take us mostly northward and upstream. We moved downward in the valley towards the river. We passed by mani stones (stones with chants/prayers written on them) -- always on the left side to get the blessing, prayer wheels and many prayers flags. Dawa told us that the prayers on them were the chant 'om mani padme hum' which means hail to the jewel of the lotus. Although most of Nepal is Hindu, the Sherpas are predominantly Buddhists since their ancestors came over the mountains from Tibet.
The sun was out. I started with my parka on, but once we got moving with the sun overhead, it quickly got pretty warm and even hot. I stripped off my parka and wore it around my waist for a while. At a rest stop I stuffed it in my backpack which made it all the more heavier. In many places the path was rocky and you had to keep looking down at your feet to make sure you didn't trip.
Dawa and one of the guides would usually stay behind us and the other guide would take up the lead. Sometimes the guides would sing as they walked.
Our hiking brought several mountain peaks into view. We remembered Kusum Kanguru (6369m) by calling it Kissing Kangaroo. The name actually means Three Peaks which describes it pretty well. We saw Konde Ri (6093m) and Khumbila (5761m), the sacred mountain which no one is allowed to climb. Dawa took my picture in front of it.
We crossed the river using a suspension bridge. The views were stunning. The mountains were so close. We passed through villages. The path (there really was only one main path) took us through a pine forest containing rhododendrons. The shadow of myself wearing my new hat reminded me of the original Kung Fu TV series, and its theme music kept running through my head. Bryan Adam's song 'Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman' also started running through my head. It tended to make me feel lighter and the walking easier.
We ran into people coming back from Thyangboche. The path was hardly crowded. Dawa told us that October and November were the busiest months. We shared the path with animals that were a cross between yaks and cows, zopkio. Generally everything carried into the area is done so either on foot or on the backs of animals like these. At higher elevations we would see yaks doing more of the carrying. We were told to always stay uphill of these animals since it wouldn't take much for them to accidentally knock you off the path down towards the river.
I perspired quite a bit as we made our way on the path. This tended to make me pretty cold when we stopped to rest, so it was always a good idea to keep extra dry clothes you could slip into in your daypack. This, on the other hand, tended to make your pack heavier which made you perspire even more. We saw quite a few of the local Sherpas on our way. It seemed that they coughed and spit quite a bit.
We made our way through the small village of Ghat (2500m), crossed a suspension bridge and settled in Phakding (2652m or 8700 feet) in about three hours. Rather than tent camping, we would be staying in tea houses. They are simple, dormitory style accommodations made of thin wood and can be found all along the Everest trail. I think this first one was called the Beer Garden Resort or something close to that. Dawa gave us the option of getting our own rooms, so I suggested we do that.
Our guides would often help prepare and serve the food wherever we stayed or stopped to eat. I had a hot chocolate (20 NRs). My tooth was so far still just sensitive to liquids. Arnou wasn't feeling well, and I was afraid I would get sick. Getting sick out here was a bigger deal than in Kathmandu.
I ended up in Room 3 which had two small beds and no electricity. I could hear the water flowing just outside down to the river. My room was between Rob's and Deb and Arnou's. The walls were very thin, and you could even see slightly through the small slits between the boards. The doors to the rooms had padlocks on them. I had brought a combination lock with me because I had read that I might need it for room doors, but I ended up only using it on my kit bag. I changed my socks and shoes. My hiking boots were very dusty.
I went outside, and it was at this time that I had a strange and powerful deja vu experience. I was talking to Dawa just outside the tea house. He warned me about going off alone and being out on the trail after dark. He said I should be back by sunset. I felt as if I had experienced this if even in a dream possibly years ago. When I went back upstairs to my room, I heard Deb and Arnou talking about a deja vu experience Deb just had, so I shared mine with them. It was a weird coincidence.
The trek with its trails, villages, rivers, mountains and exposure to a different culture at times had a Tolkien-like feel to it.
Dinner was scheduled for 6:30 PM. Warm water was brought to our rooms in small basins for washing. Those basins would be the closest I would come to bathing for the duration of the trek. I tried to nap but couldn't. There was virtually no real barrier between the dining room downstairs on the ground floor and our rooms, so I could hear all the activity. I was gettting cold, so I put on my long underwear and joined Deb, Anne, Wendy and Dawa downstairs in a conversation on long underwear. Dawa told us about a hard trekking experience he had with a diabetic man named John. I was still cold, so I put on my parka.
I learned that Deb is a nurse. Water containing some kind of disinfectant that colored it pink or purple was poured over our hands for washing before dinner. This was the custom for all our meals during the trek. Our dinner table was like a covered picnic table. We sat on a long bench on one side. The other side had a bench built into the wall.
I had garlic soup, egg fried rice and a Sprite (60 rupees) for 165 rupees. I had read that a guide had said that garlic soup was good medicine for the altitude and that the locals eat a lot of it. The food was delivered to the table staggered -- as in not all at once. Afterwards, I brought down my water bottle to have it filled with hot boiled water. I still ended up adding iodine tablets to it. As would be our usual custom, we ordered breakfast before going to bed. As was the custom, we would write our orders off of a menu into a ledger next to our names and keep a running tab during our stay in each lodge. We would settle the bill right before we left the lodge.
There was no electricity (no TV on this trip) or even fire for heat. Deb, Dawa and Bill played Chase the Ace -- apparently a local version of Uno -- while most of us watched. Considering how much we played it, I'm amazed I can't remember the rules for it as I write this.
Our only light came from a kerosene lamp. It was so quiet it almost seemed like we were the only trekkers in the village. I stepped outside before going to bed to see the stars and was awed by how they filled the sky. It was beautiful. I was amazed. I don't recall ever seeing the stars twinkle like that and so brilliantly. I remember seeing the constellation Orion vividly and the star Sirius as I picked out other stars. This probably would have been the best night to look for Comet Hyakutake, but we didn't know of it at the time. It was at its brightest on March 25th.
We took turns using the outhouse which doubled as a shower. It was between the lodge and the stream that flowed down to the river. I was still somewhat constipated.
I lit one of my candles to help me get ready for bed. My flashlight came in very handy. I slept in my clothes and my gloves in one sleeping bag. Being quite tired, most of us were in bed around 9:15 PM. The Sherpas slept downstairs in the dining room. I woke up a few times in the night and noticed that the thermometer on my key chain read 45 degrees.
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Phakding -> Benkar -> Monjo
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I woke up at 6:30 AM. The view of the mountains was fantastic in the morning. It would take the sun a while to clear the valley wall. We were brought more warm water in a pan for washing before breakfast. We ate around 7:15 AM. I had a breakfast of toast, scrambled eggs, porridge (oat meal) and tea for 195 rupees. We settled our accounts before setting off after 8:00. Mine came to 295 rupees.
I was surprised my legs felt as fine as they did. Perhaps all that walking before the trek made a difference. Actually, my legs did pretty well during the entire trek -- it was my lungs that had trouble on the climbs. Today's climb wasn't too bad. We had learned from yesterday not to carry as much in our day packs. Unfortunately, this meant more weight for the porters to carry from our kit bags on their backs. It looked like each carried three. The guides carried a medical kit and oxygen just in case of an emergency. Today my parka, my toiletry bag and my guide book went into the kit bag which helped a lot. Unfortunately, that meant I would be pretty cool until the sun climbed above the valley wall, but that didn't take very long. I never did quite master carrying only what I needed yet being comfortable throughout the day. |
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