Asia Adventure 2012: Kathmandu to Lukla then hiking to Monjo

Another 4am morning where we put the finishing touches on our Everest hike packs while gobbling down a boxed breakfast and coffee. Everything went very smoothly in our transfer to the Kathmandu Regional airport where Dinesh introduced us to our guide Kagi who took care of all the airport details for us. It’s quite an unsanitary little airport. There are separate security check lines for “ladies” and men due to the physical pat downs required to complete the security process. Our main objective at this point was to get a seat on the left hand side of the plane so we could get a good view of Everest. But our “good view” was reduced to a “sort-of-okay view” given the foggy conditions which delayed our flight for a good hour. Fortunately for us, the fog lifted, otherwise we would have been grounded.

A tiny bus transported us to the good old Canadian-made Twin Otter DHC-6/300 plane and we were the first passengers on, so we were successful in getting seats on the left hand side and away from the wing. It didn’t take long for the city to disappear in smog below us, but with the fog, a clear view of the mountains eluded us. Occasionally, a burst of sunshine made it very beautiful indeed. The twin otters land at Lukla on a short runway on an upward grade ending with the mountain. There is no room to overshoot the runway. After successful landing, the pilot must make a quick and sharp right hand turn to avoid making contact with the mountain. It was a very exciting landing indeed!

Kagi got our bags and settled us into the Everest Summit Lodge for coffee while he went to search for our guide. We will be staying here on our last night and the women who served us coffee in this freezing cold hotel were extremely sweet.

Kagi introduced us to Purba, our one-and-only porter, who was surprised at how light our bags were. After purchasing a nice yellow towel for Greg, we set out on our trek from Lukla to Monjo. I was surprised when we were trekking through villages along the valley and could always see the next village. It’s quite built up with infinite trekker hotels, lodges, tea houses, restaurants, and convenience stores along the way. So don’t worry if you forget anything! You can buy it on the mountain. In addition to the existing infrastructure, there were new hotels and restaurants going up everywhere. I suppose it is good for villagers who mainly live off the land through livestock herding and agriculture, to have handicrafts to have tourism as other sources of livelihood.

While trekking with the sun on our backs in the morning, I was busy taking pictures of the interesting things around me like; suspension bridges, mantras painted in black and white on large boulders, prayer flags and wheels, yak/cow hybrids called “Dzooms” and donkeys carrying supplies, sherpas, porters, and other people carrying loads of various sorts, feral dogs, blue sky, snow-capped peaks, and rushing clear blue water. There are also black and white painted rocks with mantras scripted on them. One must always walk to the left of these rocks. If one so choses, you may spin the prayer wheels but they must spin an odd number of times.

When meeting up with any livestock along the trail, one must give way to them on the mountain side of the trail because they may get irritated and push you off. Occasionally, the dzooms have been known to gore people, but for the most part, the herders keep them under control.

We enjoyed out trek for about 3 hours before we stopped for lunch at the Kalapathar Lodge and Restaurant where Greg enjoyed some tuna pizza and I the tuna momos, while some feral dogs decided to have a good scrap on the patio. In the mountains, one makes things last because the only way to get things from a to b is by foot. So I was fascinated by the repair job done on a plastic chair. Rather than throwing it out, it was re-engineered.

About an hour after that we stopped for afternoon tea at the Hotel Waterfall after passing a dry waterfall. We watched a young construction worker carry rocks for a new hotel across the way. Then onto the last bit of our trek for today, we continued going up and down the valley for another hour before reaching our hotel The Everest Summit Lodge in Monjo which is at 2,835 meters of elevation. It’s just gorgeous, with hot water, heated mattresses, and outstanding staff.

The trails varied; packed earth, stone steps, natural earth-stone combinations, rough cobblestones, powdery dust, and some sections stone walls on both sides of the path. There are many suspension bridges to cross along the way as well.

After taking a nice hot shower, we met up with Kagi and Purba in the restaurant for some tea, beer and good conversation until our delicious Nepalese dinner was served. We are the only guests in this gorgeous place; a benefit of travelling in the off season. In about 3 weeks the trails and hotels will be much busier. We are also fortunate to have had sun today because last week, it rained every day. At dinner, everyone was fascinated by my slideshow of today’s pictures, so I replayed it several times before we headed into our toasty heated mattress beds.