Up at 6:30, showered and met the others downstairs at 7:00 and we drove to the airport. The first flight to Lukla went out this morning, the skies are clear over Lukla. We got on a flight shortly after 8:00, except Harold, who got put on a different flight, because ours was full. We took off about 9:00. Plane was a Dornier 228, a 19 seat prop. plane. It's the same plane we sat on yesterday.
The flight was amazing! Lots of puffy clouds, and the plane jerked around a lot during the flight. Then we broke through the clouds, and WOW! Clear blue skies, and incredible mountain vista's, including Everest and other 8000+ metre peaks. The clouds looked like huge cotton balls in the sky. You'd think you could just jump out and bounce around on them. Unfortunately, I was sitting on the wrong side of the plane to really see the good views. Of course, everybody was snapping pictures through the windows.
After about 30 minutes, we started descending through the scattered, puffy clouds, and I looked out my window, and gasped. Far below, I saw a teeny, tiny airstrip on the side of a mountain, with a small town surrounding it. I remember thinking, "We're going to land THERE???" It's apparently one of the highest airstrips in the world. One end of the runway points into the valley, the other end abutts into the side of the mountain. The pilot made a huge circle in the valley, losing altitude, then lined up with the runway. I watched through the cockpit window, as best as I could from my position. The runway was SHORT! I thought there was no way in hell this huge piece of metal would every stop before the runway ended. The plane landed hard, and the plane bounced, as the end of the runway (and the mountain!) raced towards us. I honestly thought we were going to run into the rock face at the end of the runway, then just as we were about to hit it, the plane lurched and turned into the "parking lot", a small tarmack for the planes to load and unload. The tarmack is small, only able to handle four small planes at a time. There was already one plane there. As the pilot found a parking spot for his plane, everyone on the plane clapped and cheered for the pilots, at the excellent job they did. I must say, that was one of the most spectacular plane rides I've ever experienced. Words can't really describe it, it's quite an experience to land at Lukla airstrip.
Within 20 minutes of our landing, the one plane that was there took off, and three more planes and two helicopters landed. This was the first day in three days that any flights were able to get to Lukla.
We stopped at the Khumbu Resort for lunch and waited for Harold. The lodge is very nice, newly renovated, and the restaurant area anyway, looks like a lodge you'd find in He arrived about 20 minutes later, and after eating, we walked through Lukla and started up the trail. Lukla was a total tourist trekking town, tons of nice lodges (tea houses), billiard halls, shops, etc. Very interesting and nice.
The trek was amazing, but mostly cloudy, but the mountain valleys were spectacular. This was way better than the rafting trek. We stopped a lot for pictures and for milk tea at one restaurant.
There's no shortages of tea houses, you can't walk more than 20 minutes without finding lodging and food. Lots of new lodges being built all over.
We got to Phakding (town) about 4:00 and stayed at the Phakding Star Lodge. Howard and I in one room, Anna and Seamus in another. The lodge is very nice.
Seamus wasn't feeling well. He has "tap ass"...diahhrea, so I gave himm one of my Immodium knockoffs.
We sat around the restaurant of the lodge, ordered supper and played cards for a bit. Then Anna and Seamus went to bed about 7:30 or 8:00, they were totally wiped. Harold and I stayed up until after 10:30, staying warm by the wood burning stove.
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