Nepal Trekking Day 1

So we start our trekking trip in Nepal. Together, Scott and I have taken more than 500 photos!!! We wont bore you with all of them (we got a bit excited over the yaks) but hopefully some carefully chosen photos and some stories give the picture. To keep it all organized I will do a post for each day of the trip.

To start things off, here are some stats:

Planned Days Trekking: 12

Actual Days Trekking: 8 (Altitude sickness is no joke - more on that later)

Max Altitude Reached: 4700 m

Hours Hiked Each Day: 5-7

Day 1: Domestic flight from Kathmandu to Lukla (2,840 m), hike to Phakding (2,610 m)

Our Journey starts with a domestic flight from Kathmandu to Lukla. There are no busses or cars in Lukla, it is a 9 day walk into this village from Jiri or it can be reached by helicopter / plane. From this point forward in our trek everything is carried further into the villages by people or yaks. The next 2 stopping points for helicopters are Namche Bazaar and Everest Base Camp, but most goods are brought in by people or animals.

Lukla is a crazy village, we loved it. All trekkers come through here at some point to start their journey if they are trekking through the Everest Region. The village is crawling with people from all different nationalities, lodges, teahouses, market stalls selling goods to trekkers and groups of porters and guides waiting to be hired to support a trekking trip into the Himalaya.

I think the best part of the village is the airport. There is not flat land in this area so the airstrip is uphill - no kidding! There are 'parking' spaces for 4 planes (think twin otter) and 2 helicopters to load and unload people, equipment and cargo. The entire space for this is probably the size of half an (American) football field.

Baggage Claim

Lukla Airport

Inside our Plane - Sita Air

View of runway in Lukla from inside the plane

View of Runway in Lukla - a little like a roller coaster ride.


AirTraffic...

From Lukla we hiked into Phakding (about 2.5 hrs) where we had some lunch and settled into the teahouse where we spent the first night. I had a terrible cold at this point, so I pretty much slept but Scott played cards and got to know some of the other people in the teahouse for the night and it turned out that we would see these people on and off over the next several days as they were just starting their trek as well.

Getting started on trail...

Om Mani Padme Hung - The six syllable mantra of compassion of the Buddha Chenrezig. The literal translation is: Oh hail to the jewel in the lotus flower. Of course this translation from Tibetan Buddhism really can't be translated into English, as there are many teachings of the Buddha wrapped into this phrase. Click the link for more description.

This chant is carved into the prayer wheels and rocks along the trail.

Phakding

One of my fave photos of the trip... courtesy of Scott. Phakding in the evening, with the teahouses lit up.