Tuesday 22 October 2013

Day 3 - Off to Luckla and Phadking

We get up for 05:30 meet but there is no one in the hotel to meet us and nor can we find our pack breakfasts. After a bit of wandering we unexpectedly find that a full breakfast including hot dishes has been set out so we sit down to that whilst we wait for our team who amble in at about 6am.
 
The domestic airport for our flight to Lukla in usual chaos so just hang around for a bit before check in whilst our fixers go off to do their stuff - given we already have tickets for a specific flight it is not clear to us what this is. However this simply shows our naivety our the Nepalese flight system.It soon becomes clear that although they sell tickets for specific flights, in fact all you have is a vague indication that you might be put on a plane if you turn up with a well connected person with a fistful of dollars. We are clearly not on our 07:30 flight as we don't check in until about 07:15 and there are  a number of trekkers in the airport without local fixers who don't seem to be getting anywhere near check and nor are they able to find out from anyone there which flight they are actually booked on and what they can do about actually getting on it. Presumably in a few hours time when the main rush for all the groups is over there will be some flights for all those remaining - as long as the weather holds!

The are quite restrictive baggage allowances (15kg check in and 5kg hand luggage) and considerable charges for going over the weight (something like $20 per kg) on the flight so we have played the game of wearing much of our heavy gear which we will need to repack in Luckla as it will be far too hot to trek in. However, having seen what was happening prior to check in, it seems far from likely that something as lucrative as excess baggage won't be used as a cash generating exercise when there are so many people desperate to get on planes. So our luggage is taken off to the plane and then we are told that we are considerably over the limit and have to pay excess baggage on something like 140kg over. We knew we might be a bit over but considerably over at $20 per kg was going to be an issue so we start having a bit of an argument and our fixer gets involved but it is not that clear what he is saying and whose side he is on - this is actually rather amusing as the whole situation is rather farcical.
The baggage allowance has been changed so that it is now 15kg per person rather than the 15 + 5 which leads to an odd discussion when I produce the ticket which clearly shows the weight allowance of 15 + 5 to which he just smiles and says that it has changed, to which I counter that such a key term to a contract can't just be changed unilaterally without at the very least informing us. He again just shrugs his shoulders and smiles which is rather annoying. We are then interrupted by another official who comes to apologise since it appears that another groups bag was included with ours so the have just knocked 40kg off the total weight and so the overall charge is now $40 less. This leads to a lot more confusion as we are demanding that a lot more than just $40 is knocked off and after a few minutes it becomes clear that the other change which they have not informed us of is that whilst the baggage allowance has come down significantly, so have the charges which at $1 per kilo are really not a problem. So we pull the $100 together and head off to security.
This is a bit of a farce with all sorts of people wandering about, many bags not going through the scanner and the chap watching the scanner having far more fun chatting to his chums rather than actually watching the nags that are going through. Unfortunately, one of our group has managed to leave a knife in their rucksack and despite the odds, this does get picked up. After a bit of a discussion, they accept that this was just an oversight and then offer to pass it on to one of the crew who will give it back to us at the far side. We assume that this will be the last we see of it.     

Then after a short wait we head out to the plane which is pretty small with only about 12 seats.


The team!
Going over the mountains, this is bound to be a rough ride and in a plane this size we will be bouncing wildly which is terrible for news for those of us susceptible to motion sickness. However, two things brighten our mood. First, we are going to be looked after by the lovely Bumika



and secondly I find the knife which has been put into the seat-back pocket in front of me!
 
There is quite a bit of low cloud so the view goes from nothing to spectacular every few minutes for the half hour flight. The approach to Luckla is pretty stunning as we come over a ridge and drop steeply into the next valley before landing on the small airstrip on the far side. I was sitting at the back next to the emergency exit and shortly before landing a bit of turbulence jolted the door open and I was left holding the handle to prevent it from opening. The runway is very short indeed and has been positioned on a steep incline to make up for it - it really is up there with the most dramatic landings I have ever had. 

Once the airport formalities are completed we head through the village to a local hotel. Lukla is a funny little place where pretty much every building is tourism related and has some stunning mountains as a backdrop.


View up the valley from Lukla

We head to one of the hotels, organise ourselves, have what is for some people their third breakfast of the day and then start our trek up the Khumbu valley.

This is a great trek; the valley is very green, the sky is blue and the sun strong and it is great to see the little Nepali villages that dot the side of the valley.



There is also a lot of excitement from all the groups starting out on their various trips today - mostly they are trekking groups but we spot one or two others who are heading up the mountains as well.  

We don't have far to go today given that we are acclimatising and you can't predict what flight you will be on and so how much time you will have today. We move at a leisurely pace and have a long stop for lunch where we have the ubiquitous noodle soup (instant noodles with added vegetables) which is a great energy rich, healthy easy meal at a nice little cafe in the sun with views back down the valley. 

We get to Phadking at about 15:30 and have a leisurely afternoon and evening of chatting, drinking tea and a bit of organising before an early supper at about six before bed at the conventionally acceptable time of 8pm. I have a ginger chicken dish for supper but given the size and quality of the chicken pieces I would imagine that we won't be having much meat on this trip. This is a Buddhist area and so they won't kill any animals here and all meat comes in from Kathmandu and so is rarely fresh. 

There is little if any camping in this part of the valley so we are staying in tea houses. These have come a long way over the years and are now like very basic hotels but are significantly more comfortable than camping - although I have not been in any others as yet my impression is that we are staying in a pretty decent one. So far the local agent seems to have been pretty generous with the budget in that we can order whatever we want for meals. Oddly though, they do not cover drinking water and toilet paper whilst we are in the teahouses. It will be interesting to see how the water part works out - I would imagine that now people will end up relying too much on the hot drinks at meals and that people will get dehydrated which may impact walking in the day but will impact the ability to acclimatise - this really is not a sensible policy!

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