Himalayan Trek Part 1

Day 1 - Lukla to Phakding 13.05

We got up at five in the morning, and ordered some breakfast to be packed for us downstairs in the restaurant. Unfortunately, the guy on the phone didn’t understand us, and no breakfast was packed. Our guide told us not to worry, that we had plenty of time, so we waited while they packed some food for us. We rushed to the airport, but for once the flights were running on time, and we missed our flight. There was nothing to worry about though, we just caught the next flight an hour later.

The Great Flight

The ride on the plane was definitely something to remember! The plane was a tiny propeller plane, and there were only 5 passengers. The rest of the seats were filled with sacks and cargo. There was one air hostess who gave us lollies to suck and cotton-wool balls for our ears. The pilot and co-pilot were fully visible, with not even a curtain separating us from the cockpit. We could see them moving the controls and communicating on their headsets, the whole way through the flight.

Narendra, our guide, told us to sit on the left side of the plane, so we would get a good view of the Himalayas. We got more than a good view, it was incredible! The whole stretch of the Himalayan mountains were just beside us for the whole flight. The were enormous! They towered much higher than we were flying, and they were covered in snow. The mountains beneath us were covered in trees and we could see the tiny little paths made by people for getting between villages. At the base of most of the valleys we passed over, we could see clear blue rivers rushing over rocks.

The best part of the flight though, was the landing. As we approached Lukla, our destination, we could see a big mountain looming up in front of us. Then we saw the runway! It was a tiny white strip on a steep slope. We could see it coming closer and closer through the cockpit window, and then finally we hit the runway, and slowed our speed as the plane pushed uphill.

The Town of Lukla

The Lukla Airport is at an army base, so there were soldiers in blue camouflage uniforms everywhere. Our porter came to meet our guide and walked off ahead on the trail with our backpack. In Lukla, we stopped at a little tea house for a drink. We were surprised by the huge pile of empty beer bottles next to the house. We figured it must have been from people who were finished trekking, because most people aren’t silly enough to add hangovers to the other list of symptoms that you can get from being so high in the mountains.

The Trek Begins

The trek planned for the day was actually quite a short and easy one. We were trekking from Lukla (2800m) to Pakding (2652m). We headed off with great energy and pace. After a while of following our guide, we got sick of his slow pace and headed on further ourselves. The paths are very well marked and at this part of the trail there were lots of other trekkers and porters.

We were thrilled by the views we saw along the way. The first part of the walk reminded Loren of the villages around Dalat, Vietnam. We descended into a valley full of little houses and stretching fields of green. In these villages there are lots of places offering pool tables to play on, lots of souvenirs and trekking clothes.

Further along the walk, there were less houses, and we walked along an enormous valley. The houses on the other side looked so small, almost like leggo houses. The river that ran below us was a beautiful powder blue colour, and it looked so inviting as we walked in the hot sun.

Phakding

Eventually we reached Pakding, and we had the whole afternoon to relax. We were expected to take 2.5 hours to get there, but we did it in 1.5! The tea-house that we stayed in was made of wood, and reminded Loren of a ply-board dollhouse. We chatted with an Israeli guy called Elad, who was trekking by himself. He was still planning to trek to another village before the end of the day. We went straight to bed after lunch, as we’d only had 4 hours sleep the night before.

There wasn’t much to do at the tea house, other than eat, play cards and drink tea, but thankfully there were two other guys staying there who we had fun chatting with. The guys had been on our flight that morning, because they missed their plane too. They didn’t have a guide, but were just going together, and catching up with some other people on the way. They had also been to India, and shared their own horror stories from there too.

Day 2 – Phakding to Namche Bazaar 14.05

The second day of trekking was one of the hardest. Loren was not feeling very well that day, which didn’t help things, and this was our first long day of trekking – 5 hours. We were travelling from Pakding (2652m) to Namche Bazaar (3400m). So it was a big climb of 800m vertically! That’s almost 3 times the height of the Eiffel Tower!

Our canine companions

As we left Phakding, we saw a beautiful dog lazing in the sun. Loren waved at him when we were walking past, and he decided to follow us. He trotted along just ahead of us for quite a long way. Eventually we came across another dog who was interested in our dog and started to ‘flirt’ or with him. They both ended up racing through the hillsides playing ‘hide and seek’.

For the first 3 hours of the trek, we didn’t really do any steep climbing. Narendra told us that we’d cross the river on suspended bridges 5 times that day.

The trail climbed each time we got to a bridge and then descended after we’d crossed it, so we just climbed up and down for the first part of the day. The suspended bridges were very cool, they were like Indiana Jones bridges!

On the way, we saw lots of Buddhist symbols. Huge stones are carved with symbols or writing, and then the carved parts are painted white. It looks amazing as the white carvings contrast with the dark coloured rock.
We also saw lots of cylindrical bells which you spin 3 times anti-clockwise, and your sins are supposed to be erased. Every spin rings the bell inside. We saw enormous ones sitting in huts, as well as tiny ones along the path on the way.

We didn’t start to climb that 800m until the very end of the trek for the day. So that meant one solid hour of extreme uphill climbing. Thankfully our guide was walking very slow, which meant we didn’t have to keep stopping to catch our breath, we could handle continuing on the sleep slope. We saw some people walking fast, and then at the next rock, you’d find them sitting and puffing. We felt like we were crawling, but we were actually overtaking everyone we came across.

The porters that we saw along the way were extremely slow, but they were carrying enormous loads. Some of them were carrying doors on their backs or several sleepers of wood. Others were carrying huge baskets piled high with trekker’s big backpacks. Apparently some of these porters carry over 100kg of kerosene at a time, up these slopes. It was hard enough just to carry our tiny backpacks and our own body weight, let alone piles of cargo.

Porters carrying as much or more than the yaks

Namche Bazar

Namche Bazar was like a mini Thamel. There were shops and tea-houses to stay in everywhere. Little stalls were set up on either side of the road, offering jewelry, knitted socks and slippers and all sorts of other knick-knacks. We found lots of internet cafes, but they were all powered by satellite links, so they were literally 10 times more expensive than in Thamel. The houses here looked even more like doll-houses. They all had roofs painted blue or green and they look very similar to each other.

Day 3 – Everest View Hotel 15.05

Namche Bazar from the top

The next day we stayed in Namche Bazar so that we could adjust to the altitude. We had a ‘short walk’ planned for the day, so that we could get used to walking at this altitude. We set off straight after breakfast, which is never a good idea for the stomach. The first part of the walk, which was just to get us out of the village itself, was straight up the mountain side. We were exhausted already by the time we had left the village houses behind. We climbed over a pile of rocks that were set up to help you climb over the barb-wired fence. This is where the walk really began.

Yak carrying supplies

The trail we followed was made of rocks set up like little steps. It was very steep, so we had to climb slowly. Despite our slow ascent, we had to stop every now and then to catch our breath. We could really feel the effect of the altitude on our bodies. The climb seemed so much harder than the one we had done to reach Namche Bazar, even though it was probably not much different other than the altitude. Stopping to take photos was the best excuse for stopping when your heart started to feel like it was going to explode right out of your chest.

After a steep climb, the trail ended, but our walk didn’t. We started hiking across mossy hills littered with rocks. To the eye, the hills didn’t seem as steep as the steps we had just climbed, but our bodies, it felt much worse. The problem with climbing hills is, that every few metres, you think that you can see the top, then suddenly another peak appears. By the time you have reached that peak, even more have appeared in the distance. Eventually a building appeared above us, which was apparently the top of this particular peak. It was a Japanese hotel, that cost USD 200 per night. Quite expensive compared to the other tea houses in Namche Bazar.

Near where we had been walking, we saw a runway, and two helicopters. Apparently, people used to fly to this runway from Kathmandu, but the sudden change in altitude was too much for most people, and they got very sick. So now people can only fly to Lukla, that way they can acclimatize better on the way.

We thought this was the end of the walk, but we still had a fair way to go. Thankfully most of it was fairly flat. We walked along the peak of the mountain and then along a trail cut into the side of another mountain. Finally we saw a flight of stairs leading to a big building. Our guide told us that this was the Everest View Hotel. On clear days you have a spectacular view of the tallest mountains in the Himalayas, including Everest! Unfortunately this was not one of those days. There was nothing to see except huge billowy clouds.

We decided to wait and hope for the best, maybe the clouds would clear. So we collapsed on a couch and warmed ourselves with some hot tea. We comforted ourselves with the fact that we’d made it from 3400m to 3880m in one hour and 20 minutes, without dying. Eventually we gave up, the clouds weren’t going anywhere, so we headed back down the mountain.

The climb down was a lot more fun and we made it in 45 minutes. Our guide was as sure-footed as a mountain goat and he sped down the mountain. We kept up fairly well, but had a few slips on loose rocks on the way. Thankfully, there were no injuries.

We took a quick nap, as was becoming our habit, and recharged our batteries. After recovering, we decided to check out Namche Bazar. We were intrigued by the name and wanted to find where the bazaar was. There was no big market square, instead there were sellers sitting along all of the main roads. They had little tables displaying knitted scarves, socks, hunting knives, figurines, jewelry, badges and other trekking related items.

Loren bought a pair of rainbow coloured knitted socks. They were shaped more like slippers, and they were very thick. They turned out to be one of the best purchases, as she had nothing to wear after hiking each day, other than thongs, and it was too cold to wear those. So the socks became slippers to wear in the teahouses.