October 29

I got up at 5 AM and had a good hot shower, which would be my last for some time to come. I packed everything and checked my suitcase at the front desk. They warned me not to lose the receipt. (``That is your suitcase!'') The person from the trekking agency who took care of my plane ticket met me in front of the hotel at 7 AM, and escorted me to a waiting cab a short distance away, in front of the agency. My guide was waiting, along with the head of the agency, who wished me a good trek. The guide brought only a small day pack, and wore tennis shoes. I was somewhat concerned about whether he was adequately prepared for the weather we would encounter, but suspected that he knew what he was doing, since he just returned from Thorung La pass, a notoriously cold and snowy place. He said he would be all right.

The taxi arrived at the domestic air terminal, a dingy old building next to a dirt parking lot, with a construction area in front. Since Lal is Nepalese, he had to show his ticket to enter. We weighed our bags together, and his was so light that there was never any danger of exceeding the weight limit. They have no X-ray, and security consisted of feeling my pack by hand, without opening it, and going through a booth where a guard examined the contents of my pockets and searched for weapons.

We had a long wait for the flight, because Lukla was cloudy, and the planes will not fly when it is cloudy. ("The clouds have rocks in them," they say.) I talked to a man from Lukla who has a business in Kathmandu, and wants to go to college in the U.S. Then I practiced reading Nepali phrases from the back of my guide book to my guide, Lal, and he understood them. The airport security guard watched and was very amused by this. I had a cinnamon roll and some tea at the snack bar, and then talked to the man who wanted to know about American colleges for a while. He was also interested in what American cities were like. When talking, he sat very close, so that we were touching. This is very common among the Nepalese, who often sit very close to one another when talking, or walk holding hands or with their arms around one another.

Lukla Airstrip

The plane finally came, and I was relieved, since I was worried that they would cancel flights for the day if the clouds didn't lift. The Twin Otter STOL plane held only about twenty people. The flight took 35 minutes, with views of the mountains above the clouds, and hazy views of the green, terraced hills and valleys below. Finally, we flew straight toward a ridge, and landed uphill on the steep, rocky airstrip. The airstrip is at the edge of a cliff, and the landing would be rather scary if you could see what was happening.

We retrieved our bags and started walking through Lukla, a fairly large town at 9350 feet elevation, with many lodges. To my guide's dismay, I insisted on carrying my own pack for a while, to help get in shape for the higher elevations. We didn't go far through town, to the other side of the airstrip, before we came to our lunch stop, the Panorama Hotel. Lal left our return plane tickets with the manager. I had a fried oriental noodle dish, and Lal had dal bhatt (rice with lentils), which was one of the most expensive dishes here. He said this is what he always has, but I could have anything I liked. He went out to shop for a hat on the main street, and my meal came. It was decent. I filled my water bottle at the kitchen sink. Lal returned as I did this, and was worried, but I told him I had iodine to purify the water. Lal's meal was enormous, and he ate it without utensils, using his right hand to scoop up the rice and soupy lentils.

The trail followed the Dudh Kosi river, high above its lush, green valley. Most traffic on the trail is porters and trekkers. The porters usually wear flip flops or are barefoot. There were also a lot of yaks, or yak-cattle cross breeds, carrying loads. The river below had a lot of white water. Lal kept asking me to trade packs, clearly uncomfortable that my pack was bigger than his, so I finally did. He may need to carry it at higher elevations, so it would be good for him to get used to it now. My pack probably weighed 20 kg, and his probably weighed at most half that. He seemed somewhat uncomfortable with my pack, which was too big to fit him well even after I adjusted the shoulder pads, and heavier than I thought he was comfortable carrying. Lal often sang while walking, and generally stayed in front of me.

Mani Stones between Lukla and Phakding

Today's walking was fairly easy, since it was mostly level, and we were walking less than 3 hours. We passed a number of mani stones, inscribed with Buddhist prayers in Tibetan script, as well as prayer flags and a big prayer wheel. We stopped in Phakding, at 8700 feet, and had tea in the kitchen of a lodge. Then we went to a different lodge to get rooms. We had private rooms next to each other, on the second floor. They didn't have any double rooms at that time. The rooms were narrow wooden stalls, which were just wide enough for a hard bed. The door could be padlocked, and it was good that I brought combination locks for this purpose.

After a rest, we went back to the lodge where we had tea earlier, and had dinner upstairs in their dining room. Lal recommended onion soup, which I had with a potato, egg, and vegetable dish. I could smell the same fragrant odor I smelled when passing the street cooks in Kathmandu. I asked Lal what it was, and he told me it was the odor of the wood burning in the stove. He could not tell me the name of the wood in English. Lal spent most of his time downstairs in the kitchen, and delivered my food to me.

An American couple from the state of Washington was at the next table. The husband just had his 66th birthday party in Namche Bazaar. They had had some respiratory problems while walking from breathing dust on the trail, especially when yak trains passed. They said it was too bad it was cloudy today, since I could not see the mountains above the valley. At 7 PM, I was ready for bed. For some reason, I had developed a preference for sleeping from around 6 PM to 3 AM since being in Nepal.

Copyright Scott A. Yost, 1994. All rights reserved.