My trek to the Everest Base Camp-Part 4.

Have you ever felt like taking something hard and banging your husband’s head to make him just SEE SENSE? I was having one of those moments now. But Ajit stayed resolute. And his parents seemed calm as well. They would hold fort. Against the flood waters. So I stockpiled food and water; and we dug deep into our friendship reserves. Requested all our dear friends to step in and help out in case crisis struck. To take care of our family. When we were dumping them - to go Trekking! Fulfill our decade old tryst with destiny.

 Day 1 was Kathmandu. Kathmandu underwhelmed me. But one interaction left a lasting impression. Our local travel agent – discovered via Google - Kedar. Kedar had been a poor kid in a small impoverished village off the tourist circuit. A chance encounter as a kid, with a lone tourist, had opened him up to the  Possibilities of Tourism. He left the village, came to the city and started working with a tour operator at age 15 (completing his education in parallel). By the time he was 20, he had started his own tour company. He was only 22 when we met him in 2011, but he was professional, helpful and wonderful to work with. His ambition to make it in life the old fashioned way: via honesty, hard work, and some street savvy (his office boy’s job in all spare time was to keep searching for his website so it would move up the search engine rankings!) was life-affirming.






Kedar Napune. Courtesy www. actual-adventure.com



Kathmandu Domestic Terminal.

 Day 2: Early morning, we grabbed breakfast and headed to the domestic airport. The domestic airport looked more like an Indian Bus Terminal than an airport. People were screaming, cutting lines, going behind the counter, elbowing each other. And the understaffed airline staff was reciprocating the attention showered with shouting back. It was pure chaos. Desi Style.





Our Tickets on Agni Air

 We discovered that our airline was called ‘Agni’ (Fire). A recent news clip about an Agni airline crash just a few weeks earlier came to both our minds. We pacified our shaky souls by telling ourselves that no airline could have two air crashes within 2 months. Probability was with us. Luckily, we didn’t know better then,  but Nepal’s three domestic airlines have the among the worst safety records in the world. Nepal has had 6 air crashes in the last 2 years alone. Sometimes, Ignorance is indeed Bliss.


 Our destination was Lukla. Lukla is situated at an elevation of 2860 m and is surrounded by high mountains –up close - on all sides. Its air-strip is the runway equivalent of a thong-barely visible even when up close, and invisible from afar. Old aircrafts, unpredictable spurts of bad weather (clouds, wind tunnels), a narrow flight path next to mountains that are too close for comfort and a very short runway make Lukla one of the Most Dangerous Airports in the World. (Google and you will believe)




Lukla's thong- like runway. Yup, all you see is all there is.

 Did I mention that I was adventure-averse? And that trekking would be my ‘soft’ adventure option? Ah well, the things one does for love, and a crazy husband.

 As we would discover later in the trip as well, weather in those parts is moody, impulsive and unpredictable. Smiling one minute, Angry the next. Cheery some days, Gloomy on others-at times, for for days on end. Today was Angry weather day. Windy. So we had fire drill type runs to board the aircraft- twice; one mid- air turnaround; and several hours of practicing patience at the Kathmandu airport. And finally, just as the sun was beginning its downward slide, we glided into Lukla.

Lukla is a messy collection of teahouses. It exists –like several other villages on our way - to serve the tourists- all of whom start all their journeys on the Everest side, here. Lukla was tiny by any urban comparison – all of it would comfortably fit into Sukhumvit Soi 39, in Bangkok. But with 150-200 teahouses, a few coffee shops, and a small number of shops selling tourist essentials, it would be among the largest places we would visit in the next 15 days. One little detail about Lukla you should store – it has no vehicles. It is a 6 day walk away from the closest road. And the only way in and out of Lukla is its thong-like, almost invisible, ‘Most Dangerous Airport in the World’.

 At Lukla, I met the man who would be my mate for the next fortnight – my porter Balaram. Balaram was in his fifties but a lifetime spent as a porter –trekking in the sun- had wrinkled his skin and greyed his hair and he looked much older. He looked fit, but I wondered if he would be able to carry my -stuffed to its gills- backpack. And, he had never seen a trekker like me before – fat, bulky, very untrekker like. With all his years of portering experience, he expressed complete confidence in my abilities. He confidently pronounced that I would never make it. Auspicious beginnings indeed.


Balaram and me.

 The sun was already beginning to set. In the mountains, darkness sets in quickly and suddenly - as soon as the sun slides below the mountains. Balaram was sure that I would never be able to get to the planned rest-stop for the night -Phakding. So, we should stay in Lukla. But Ajit-the racehorse with blinders- was rearing to go. We had lost several hours already due to the flight’s delay. It was going to be a tight schedule and we had to start immediately. We would stay at whatever village came our way at nightfall.

 So, with the sun setting behind us, and with just our determination for company, the three of us started walking. Ajit, with his backpack, Balaram with my backpack and me with –well –me. Our much awaited Everest Base Camp Trek had finally begun.


Starting off the trek at Lukla.



 (Kedar Naphune runs a tour and travel agency in Kathmandu called Actual Adventures Pvt. Ltd. I recommend it. )

(A wonderful article about the Lukla airport is here http://www.smh.com.au/travel/activity/active/up-up-and-afraid-20120907-25i7n.html )

For more details about the itinerary, requirements, etc. for the base camp trek – you can check http://wikitravel.org/en/Everest_Base_Camp_Trek)