This was
unique situation for us urbanites used to the mythical assumption that we
control our life in its entirety. We
could be here for days, or weeks. Who knew? Things were completely out of our
control.
As it
turned out, we did land up spending several days stranded in Lukla. Where each
day was just like the one before-and so the story of Lukla is best presented as
snippets of memory. Things that stand out.
And the thing
that I remember most is that being stranded was fun. I remember Lukla as a
place where we laughed a lot. Seriously.
On our
first evening in Lukla, we formed a gang – like a bunch of college freshmen
coming together. From just the 2 of us, we swelled to being 5-There were Dirk
and Cas, from Holland. Dirk – the talkative one. Cas the quiet one. Dirk was an
insurance entrepreneur back home, but could have made an alternate career as a
stand-up comedian. Then there was Mohammed – the mountain biking dude from
South Africa, and a prolific father –he has fathered 5 children.(Mohammed, that
one is for you) He owned a gas station back home – and looks like with every liter
of petrol he gave a joke free. And there was Sheena- the hot Emirates
airhostess from Mauritius. So hot, - with even the 30 layers of unwashed
trekking gear- that she warmed the air around her as she walked. And managed to
get her young guide Babu to develop a crush on her (sorry Sheena ;) ). And us –
the Indian Mafia.
No topic
was taboo. No opportunity for cracking up left unused. But given the situation,
the topic that got us the most laughs was our funny crazy situation.
We
laughed with skepticism at those trying to escape by Helicopter from Surkhe –
about one hour trek from Lukla. (Seriously ? What a scam!) We smirked with
disbelief at those that decided they would make the 6 day trek to Jiri. And
there were a million jokes about Dirk’s guide – a young scamster trying exploit
the situation and make a quick buck off Dirk and Cas. He was nicknamed Smruf because of his blue cap. And Smurf –
bless his soul – provided us much entertainment. And there were jokes about
Babu’s protectiveness of Sheena. There were jokes about Ajit and my unique
ability to get kicked out of tea houses every day (we stayed in a new tea house
every night). And Ajit’s leg was pulled for picking up a fight with a tea house
owner on ‘How to Flush a Toilet’ and getting kicked out in the bargain.
We met at
Illy – the coffee shop – everyday, gorging down innumerable cups of coffee and
countless plates of desert. Lukla had 2 ‘branded’ coffee shops –Illy and Starbucks. Illy was strategically
located. It has the best view of the runway while enjoying the warmth of being indoors.
On one of
the days, through all the heavy clouds, an aircraft landed into Lukla. Suddenly
there was much excitement and everybody descended
onto the airport to see this wonderful being. And then, just to torture our
souls, the pilot decided to take the plane for a walk on the runway. And then
parked it and left. The rest of the day was spent, looking at the wheels of the
plane – was it moving? And the stationary plane became the object of many
jokes.
And many
hours were spent staring into the horizon, guessing if the clouds were thinner
today than yesterday. And trying to collect information off the web(the coffee
houses had wifi) on when the skies were expected to be clear. We were all
graduating with degrees in climatology and aviation. And weather jokes and airplane
jokes.
We would
split up and go to different edges of Lukla and come back and share the gossip.
What was the Latest News in town – who was leaving, who had left, who had left
and come back. ‘The Helicopter from Surkhe’ stories were endless’. Was it real
? Was it a scam ? How did one get on to one ? It was all One Big Mystery. But Mysteries
are great fodder for jokes.
Every day,
there was the mandatory trip to the airline office. What were the airline
officials saying ? Mohammed recently reminded me of a priceless quote from the
Tara airline official “ www : 3 things you cannot control – work, woman,
weather.’”
There was
Time to Kill in Lukla, plenty of it. And Killing Time together was awesome
indeed. We built some great relationships in Lukla in those few days- many of
which have endured and strengthened over time. We have met Sheena since Lukla –
she stopped over in Bangkok on one of her many flights across the globe. And
Mohammed, we have visited and stayed with in South Africa. Dirk stays connected
on Facebook and we hope to meet them all together some day.
Through
all the fun and laughter, there was a little voice that kept growing louder in
all our heads each day ‘How are you going to get out ?’.
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