(Writing from my bed at the Tasi Darghey lodge at Phakding)
This morning was chaos..slept at almost 1 last night and then woke up early.Morning ablutions - that needed to last me the whole trek (gulp) and then the packing...and then there was a power outage and then Mr Roshan the agent called asking if i could come in earlier as the chopper may leave earlier( WHATTT!!!)..We reached the airport and after making us sit for a while , he went off to pick up our boarding passes, he returned all sombre and said that there is a rescue at Basecamp 2 and hence wont be a chopper flying in to Lukla..And that he will try to get us get same day tix for noon...after a whole lot of waiting and anticipation-and absolute chaos..we finally got our boardin passes. Must say it was interesting. We realised we weren't the only ones. There were quite a few people waiting patiently and silently praying that they'd be able to leave that day. Yes even if you have a flight booked MONTHS ago and confirmed the previous day, there is NO, I repeat, NOO guarantee that you'll be able to fly out on your scheduled flight on your scheduled date. Plus if you're from a SAARC nantion resident, like an Indian, who get an instant discount, be prepared to wait long, very long.Also keep spare change to pay the airport tax that is NOT included in the flight fare.....
Usually not more than 15kgs per person is allowed to be checked in, and defintiely not multiple pieces of luggage. We weighed ourselves on the check-in baggage scale just for the fun of it- and to be able to compare our weight when we get back in:)
We paid Mr Roshan for the tix and after accepting his profuse apology, we went to the boarding area-starving but we decided to go the gates anyway and first check the status of which gate we'd have to exit to get on our flight first-turns out they had been announcing our names .....( The announcements are so horrible, u cant really distinguish syllables.....)
Crazy plane ride later we finally touched down at Lukla (2800 metres) and began our trek-passed the first check point. Okk- so we'd logged in our first tick on the trek:)
Then after debating where to eat- had a samosa for 20 bucks then some Veg noodle soup for 150(warning- i looked up the packet and saw the Veg noodles had chicken stock in it!!)
Then walked walked walked to lukla. We saw a Starbucks Lukla-fake obviously..laughed so much..then cute kids all along and a landslide across the river...
( One of the first Mountain Villages we came across down in the valley)
One hour from Phakding we thought we were already at Phakding but actually one hour away and that one hour was up and up... i suppose didnt do bad if u take note if the fact that i was carrying 15 kilos..
Once we reached Phakding..lodges gave us all diff prices finally stayed at Tasi Dargey for 100 bucks a night:)
Food is expensive though -70 bucks for tea and 200 for toast
Was a beautiful walk up-good we went slow-saw some amazing views:)
I was walking and one little cute girl came with a bunch of marigolds and offered me one ..i refused..she was like 'no, thank you'..(which meant please take and say thank u)..so cute...)
Now its 9.28 pm..and am off to zzz
( The first crazy swinging bridge we came across on the trek and yeah, first Yak too. The bridge is made of metal- doesn't stop in swinging with the winds though. I was petrified- actually counted the bolts on this one)
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