The first day of hiking is done. We only hiked 3 hrs but it was a lot tougher than I expected and I am spent. But let me back up.
The flight from Doha to Katmandu was uneventful. There were probably only 40 people on the flight so there were 200 empty seats. We both slept most of the flight. Turns out it was only a 4.5 hr flight. It was dark when we landed. We got out bags and looked at the long line at immigration. But since I had gotten out tourist visa from the Nepal embassy back in March, we went to a different counter where there was no line at all.
We met out outfitter, Unique Path Treking and got in a cab for a scary ride thru the slum. The slums seemed to go on forever with people and cars sharing the road in sort of a mutual sycronized swimming display. If of run over a dozen or so people had I been driving. I can't begin to describe the slums so I won't try.
When we got to our hotel we were met by our guide, Ross. We had to give him copies of our travel insurance cards and our passport and paid for the balance of the trek, $2350. I paid in cash as I don't want to use my credit card in a 3rd world country. I was glad pay and not be carrying so much cash. We had a dinner which was included in our trek - all the meals are included but all drinks are paid by us. We were told to meet in the lobby at 0500 and headed to our room after dinner at about 11 pm. The room was....hmmm, let's say a clean dump. It had to hard single beds and a little spit of a pillow and the a/c did not work so we opened the window and listened to dogs howl and horns honk. I exchanged $300 rupees at the hotel and the rate was about 92 rupees to a dollar. I don't think they use coins as the smallest bill 5 rupee....which is a nickel.
We got up at 0430 and took cold showers. Nick said he managed to find a position of the knobs where it was sorta warm but I didn't even try to find the sweet spot and just took a refreshing cold shower.
We met Ross in the lobby at 0505 hrs. Ross is a young, 26 yo Nepaleese and speaks English well enough that I can understand about 40% of what he says. We took a cab to a different airport that looked like a run down bus station. It made the Majuro RMI airport look like Newark! It took 2 minutes to go thru security. The provided breakfast in boxes since we had to leave the hotel so early. I ate a tiny banana and half a roll and a boiled egg. The bread and muffin were awful stale and inedible.
We boarded a small prop plane that seated about 20 people. Very cozy plane. We had a short flight to Lukla, 2,800 meters and landed at the "scariest airport in the world'. You can google that phrase to see a video of the airport. You land uphill on the shortest runway I've ever seen. I was sitting just 1 seat back from the open cockpit so was looking out the front of the plane as we were quickly running out of runway. We had to turn to avoid hitting the wall but it really was no scary. The airport in Lukla made the Katmandu airport look modern!
We went to a little cafe and had a really bad cup of instant coffee and used a disgustingly smelly bathroom. Our porter showed up. His name is Kumar and he probably weighs 135 lbs. He is carrying BOTH our out duffle bags. I put my backpack and contents in my duffle bag so I'm guessing the 2 bags weigh 80 lbs. He worked hard today and every time I saw him he was seating and obviously working very hard. I don't know how much the outfitter pays him but they recommend tipping the porter $10 to $12 per day. Since I think our bags are on the heavy side of typical I think we can do better than $12/day for the 11 days. Our guide Ross typically gets $15 - $20/day.
We left the cafe at 0800 hrs and on what I was told was 'mostly a downhill trek'. They lied. It was down for a while and then it was up and down up and down. O M G. Ross said this was an 'easy' day. OMG!! I've hiked some pretty good hikes on Rainier, Mt St Helens, Rockies, Appellations, and Pikes Peak . . . but they were NOTHING like this! The trail is very rocky and we shared the trail with ox and donkeys and horses and local and other hikers. I don't know if my legs will even move tomorrow! It is just me, Nick and Ross hiking and occasionally Kumar would be with us and I pretty much set that pace. That is, young Nick and Ross had to wait on the old fat man to sit on a rock and catch his breath.
The culture is unique! I don't know how else to describe it. I've been to 30+ different countries and Nepal by far the 'most unique'.
We got to our first camp about 11 am and had lunch. All the meals are included in the trek but drinks and wifi are extra. The wi-fi was $5 and Nick and I both bought the service. We botyh had the yak steak that was exceptionally good.
The good news is, I can upload my note. The bad news is, the 173 pictures I took along the trail are on my digital camera and I have no way to get them uploaded to the blog. I will try to have Nick upload some pictures from his iPhone to the blog. If that doesn't work, I will try to take some with my iPad so I can upload them.
The room here at the 'camp' is nice. It has 2 single beds beds and a bath but no shower. I shower is available for $250.
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