Outdoor Bugs: Everest Base Camp - Day 2 Kathmandu-Lukla-Phakding

Day 2 was like get up, shower, brush teeth, pack up and went downstairs of the hotel lobby to wait for our transport to the airport to catch a flight to Lukla and ding, were day 1 on the trek. Everything happened so fast.
Upon reaching the airport, it was a mess. I haven't seen third world country airport for such a long time. Nothing digital at all. The weighing scale was like those used in olden days rice mills. You just stack your luggage and they read it off the scale. Everything was done manually. There was a reason to it. Everyday the power to the entire country will be cut off for 3 hours. The rationale is to let the power generator rest at the National Power Board grid management. I can't imagine how a factory would operate under such circumstances. The thing is the 3 hours of power outage nobody really know when exactly in a day it will happen. Can you imagine running a internet cafe business or if your in an ICU when that happen. So some rich merchants would get their own diesel power generator to continue running the show.

The mess at the airport reminded me of the old interstate bus station at Puduraya, Kuala Lumpur. people shouting for destination, people moving franticly. Basically, your objective is to get on the next available flight despite having booked your ticket. The challenge in getting to Lukla is the weather. There is a window of about 4 hours, usually in the morning. So you make sure you get your ass on board within that window period if weather permit.

The flight to Lukla generally takes about 1 hour give and take due to weather and wind condition. We flew in a twin otter, fokker type plane. Max seating is about 16 pax plus 2 pilot and 1 cabin crew. There needs to be some balancing work done when loading luggage and people on board.

Travel Note 2. Try to get a seat on the left hand side of the plane going to Lukla, on a return get a flight on the right hand side. Only if you want to see the Himalayan range.

We arrived at about 10am at Lukla, small airport, the hanger can accommodate about 4 planes max. The short and inclining landing strip makes it a bit of a hair raising experience. There is a whole group of people gathered at the airport, all waiting to get a piece of the action. Porters, Guides line up waiting for jobs. Looking at this, I understand why Nepal export so many foreign labour to Malaysia. There just too many people with no jobs available. Manufacturing can't take place because of the 3 hours no electricity on a daily basis. So where are people gonna work, anywhere but Nepal of course.

We rendezvous with our pre arranged porter Chabby and Paspati at the Khumbu Lodge. I was amazed at the equipment they use, some ropes and a head gear to shoulder the weight and thats it. No Northface, Deuter stuff.

We had our breakfast at the Lodge. I had a simple Tibetian bread with jam and of course chiya ( Nepali milk tea ). After breakfast, we went on our course to trek to Phakding. estimated about 3 hours away from Lukla. The route decline the proceed to move up and down again. The elevation was in fact lower than Lukla. The weather was nice, towards later in the evening it started to get cold probably in the region of 15c.

The 1st day probably took us about 4-5 hours. We were snapping our camera almost at anything that move. NJ told me, its normal, wait till you get to the 3rd day and you'll start ignoring everything and just walk.

We stayed in this nice Lodge. It was cosy room non the less, warm and nice. Toilet is shared and the kitchen and dining is in a separate building adjacent to our room. We hang around Phakding. Went around the whole village to check out on things. Despite being a small village, it has a pool club and a few small mom and pop convenient store.

Dinner was simple Dhal Bhat ( Rice with curry ). We then had to make selection for our next morning breakfast. I opted for tibetian bread and jam again. We went to bed pretty early cause there wasn't much nightlife.