Day 1:Lukla-Phakding

Trekkers

The 7 Amigo’s met up in Kathmandu, Nepal at hotel Samsara. The group comprised of

• Shachin Agarwal and Alka Nand  (the author) from Dallas, Tx
• Shree and Sukriti Lath from Dallas, Tx
• Urmi Ray and Sanjiv Nanda from San Diego, CA
• Anisha Jonas from San Diego

Hiking Company

The Hiking company we went with was

Unique Path Trekking - http://www.nepaltrekkinginfo.com/

Guides

• Dunbar
• Revanta

Porters

• Vijay
• Mann
• Tej
• Shyam

Links

An awesome aerial view video of the complete trek.

http://www.privateexpeditions.com/trekking-in-nepal/trekking-routes/everest-base-camp-trek/classic-everest-base-camp-trek/

A link to our EBC Pictures

https://plus.google.com/photos/+ShachindraAgarwal/albums/6076787863832519361

Day 1 - Sept 30, Tue 

Lukla (9,320'/2,840m) - Phakding (8,560'/2,610m)
Approx 3 ½ hrs 5 miles Started around 10 and reached around 1:30 pm
Ascent 1000 ft Descent 1198 ft

We left for the airport very early to catch the 7am flight to Lukla. There was utter chaos at the airport! There is a limit of 12 kg per passenger and all of us except Anisha exceeded that limit. We had to pay a penalty for that. At the airport after checking in while we were waiting for the flight we met 2 girls – Meenaz Lala and Madhu from Bombay who were also hiking to EBC via the Gokyo Lakes route. And we were really impressed coz they were going on their own without a guide or a porter. (We later met them in Namche when they told us that Madhu had taken a porter). It was a 30 minute flight but we got some awesome views of the mountains. Since I was sitting on the wrong side I did not get any good pictures but Shree did.

We landed at the really small airport with a  very short runway of some 1500 feet, a tength of most airports and at an incline!  Tenzing-Hillary Airport (Lukla Airport) in the region is an airport located in the highest elevation in the world.  

Unfortunately Shachin and my bags did not make it so we had to hang out at a lodge waiting for them to come. Had some Tea and took out some of our snacks. We started the Water purification process while at the Lukla lodge to be environmentally friendly and had a lot of fun discussing the technicalities! Throughout the way we hardly bought any bottled water.

Trekking:  From Lukla (9,320'/2,840m) It was downhill 920'/280m over the first 3 miles of our hike, then hiked a relatively flat final 1.5 miles to arrive in Phakding (8,560'/2,610m). Phakding lies in the Dudh Kosi river valley just north of Lukla and south of Monjo. It is one of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The views of lush green mountains with the turbulent Dudh Kosi flowing through them were very pretty! It was quite tiring specially coz we had just landed in Nepal the night before and were heavily jet-lagged.  We trekked through several quaint little villages and met lots of kids all along the way. They would all say Namaste in the cutest way! Ladies were busy taking care of kids or cooking or washing. Saw several men carrying heavy loads on their back. Some were even carrying huge planks of plywood that must be used to build the Tea Houses. EVERYTHING is carried on the backs of men or beasts all the way upto Gorak Shep and beyond. That was one of the reasons our guide forbade us from eating non-veg on the trek. Killing of animals is not allowed inside Sagarmatha Park which meant that the meat would have been lugged up from Lukla, unrefrigerated for several days!

We saw many Tibetan Prayer Wheels and innumerable prayer flags flapping in the wind, friendly locals and stubborn zopchuk on the trail. Zopchuk are a mix of Yak and Cow and look like Yaks, but lesser fuzzy hair. They are found at lower altitudes – Yaks are more common above about 12,000 feet.

When we finally reached Phakding we were very glad we had decided not to go up till Monjo. All of us were very tired. The Tea House rooms were pretty gloomy and depressing. We did have attached baths which was convenient. Next morning they delivered a bowl of hot water to splash our faces but by the time we got it we were all dressed and ready!

NEXT -  Oct 1, Wed - Day 2 Phakding (8,560'/2,610m) - Namche Bazaar (11,285'/3,440m)