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.

Window seat

Pilot's cockpit

Village view from sky

Himalaya range

Mountains

OMG!!!! we're landing

Can't believe we just landed on this strip

Tenzing Hillary Airport

Lukla Main Street

Tibetian Bread

Young Porter

Check out the look on NJ's face

Big COCK

Supplies Porter

Flowers

Scenic

Prayer stones

House on waterfall??

The house is a hydro powered milling stone

National Geographic attempt

Undulating countryside

First cable bridge crossing on EBC

Unending walk

Curious cow

Country view

Macro prayer stone

another macro Prayer stone

Prayer wheel

Kitchen

Bed at last

Our tea house, check out the washbasin in front

Everest Base Camp - Day 1 Kuala Lumpur - Kathmandu

Our plane to Nepal

Trishaw in Thamel

Kalapatar Trekking Store

Main Street Thamel

Chilli Momos

Like all major trip, it must always have a drama. It spices up the trip so you have more stories for people. So welcome it. In our case, the flight was delayed for a full 2-3 hours, we were suppose to board at 6am and reach Kathmandu at 10am.

This was a nerve wrecking part cause we intended to spend the afternoon shopping for some last minute gear and suitable clothing for the cold weather up in the mountain.

So we ended up in Kathmandu around 12pm, by the time visa and customs were done, its about 2.30pm, hungry and a bit tired caused most of us got up at about 3am to make it to the airport. We went round to NJ ( our Guide ) office to sort out formality, fill in forms for the National Park permit, paid the money to NJ cause we couldn't be bother with carrying so much cash around.

He took us to the money changer across the road from his office to change our USD to Nepali Rupees and then its SHOPPING time. It was my first trip to Kathmandu. If i had a chance, I'll come again with an empty bag. In Thamel, the backpacker part of town you can get anything climbing, hiking, trekking & outdoor. I was like a kid let loose in the candy shop.

We went to this ultra cheap outlet call Kalapatar Trekking Store. The size of this store is probably 15 feet x 15 feet. I got my outer shell, ski pants and a few pieces of quick dry t-shirt. The whole cost me just under RM 150 ( less than USD 45 ). All north face imitation courtesy of Chaiman Mao's capitalism.

After the shopping bit, we went for our dinner at this local nepali shop specialising in Newari food. We had briyani, dhal bhat, aloo gobi ( cauliflower with potato ), chilli momos - this is good shit if you like spicy stuff. After dinner, we decided to go back to our room and knock off early.

Batu Caves Training

6.30am dit dit dit dit...........There goes the alarm, time to get up for training

Usually on an uneventful weekend, i normally get up to Batu Caves for some keep in shape and fitness training.

huh............. isn't Batu Caves a temple cave where the hindus do all the body poking stuff at 1 time a year and people go into a trance to give thanks to Lord Murugan.

Yes, yes.............That's the thaipusam festival. I'll post a brief write on Thaipusam later

The 272 steps up to the cave is what i after, how hard can 272 steps be right ? One way ok, Up down 1 round ok, but try challenge yourself and try to do a 5-10 lap of up and down and tell me if you get a workout.

Many people do laps up and down the 272 steps on weekends. Although the place was not intended as a exercise area, the temple priest are generally ok on people doing their walk up and down the stairs

Some unwritten rule that most fitness guys and girl abide by while training here
1. Always give way/priority to devotees performing prayers here. Also forget about helping them up especially children or old folks, its a burden they have to carry by themselves. I've seen people kneel all the way up 272 steps with my own eyes............

2. Observe the no exercise area at cave entrance after the 272 steps

3. Help the temple priest carry stuff up to the temple if you see any, they usually leave bags of it at the start of the 272 steps.

4. Do not feed the monkeys

Broga Hill - Semenyih

After many months of being busy at work (starting at a new place). This is my lost counted attempt to write a blog on my weekend adventure. It was a good weekend hike. I manage to shoot many pictures and try different technique. The plus point was my sifu Yap was ever glad to part with his photography knowledge to me. The climb was short and simple. It was a good break from fishing and just enjoying the morning air.

We started the hike at 6am. It was raining like mad from 1.30am. So the terrain was expected to wet and soggy. The Petronas station where we gathered before the hike was packed mad by the group organise by Peter with about 30 hikers. Some of these guys i've met and some were new faces. We exchange jokes and say our hello and we proceeded to drive to the plantation where we would park our car and start the hike.

Honestly, i didn't know what to expect as i am a virgin on this mountain despite it being so near the city. Some season guys who been here told me, 'its a piece of cake' 45 minutes tops to the peak. We trekked through a plantation for about 10 minutes before we reached the base of the hill for the climb. Needless to say, it was a walk in the park for me. Good warm up after being out of action from hiking for almost a few months. The last serious hike I had was Gunung Datuk. Took me about 40 minutes to the peak. This hill has 3 peaks. The view from these peaks are pretty much the same as they are actually on the same ridge line. We hanged around the peak 2 and decided not to head to peak 3 due to the heavy traffic. I was glad as I caught with many old climbing buddies and was busy having snack and drinks with them.

The scenery was beautiful with the fogs on the background. Some people was complaining that we can't see the sunrise due to the overcast weather. I beg to differ. Different weather gives different lighting background thus create different scenery. In my next post i'll attach some photos i've taken with the overcast weather.

We got down after spending about an hour on peak 2. The downhill trip took us only 30 minutes. I decided to trek down slowly as the entire track was muddy and slippery. Back at the carpark, we got into our car and changed and headed towards Broga town for our breakfast.

Everest Base Camp - Prelude

Finally after a delay of about 1 year, i decided to write an blog article about my Nepal trekking experience. Majestic, breathtaking and definitely must do before you die is how i would summarise the whole experience. You'll probably end up looking at mountain differently.
Took us about 2 years to plan the logistic, arrange for the guide, research, getting the right gear and saving up cause our exchange rate is just a laughing stock for the rest of the world. RM 3.45 vs USD 1.

Travel tip 1. You try to pay everything in Nepal Rupees cause its cheaper, Most majors like USD, EUR, GBP is widely accepted as well. MYR is accepted for currency exchange in major cities like Kathmandu. Try to change in bulk if you're travelling in a group. You can negotiate very good rates. Carry heaps of smaller denominated USD. Don't make a joke of yourself by paying for a coke with USD 50.

There was plenty of drama a few weeks leading to the trip.
1. Thai Airways decided to hike their rates for Kathmandu at the last minute, so we were stuck with Nepal Airlines, damn will sure miss those hot assed thai airway stewardess

2. Wendy got pregnant with baby Cadence, so she's not gonna make it for this trip. Cadence if you're old enuf to read and this blog and this blog still kickin. Make a comment and say thanks to your mom.........so we're down to 5 headcount

3. USD exchange rate hit RM 3.20, we were laughing cause it came down from RM 3.80, bonus payday would have helped a lot more.

There was just so much shit to before we left. A full 32 days away from home. The laundry, settling all bills before leaving, leaving the car with someone to start it occasionally. Who's gonna water the plant. Packing up, checking the checklist of stuff to bring over and over again...........