Everest Trek - Day 4

Up at 6:30, for 7:00 breakfast. Our Sherpa, Lapka, slept in, and we left about 9:00.

Lapka was still stick. He kept asking me for more drugs.

It was a short trek to Lukla, we got there about 10:30, and went to the Khumbu Resort for eats and found out there were no more flights to Kathmandu for today. So, we were stuck in Lukla for the day. We booked on the first Yeti Airlines flight for tomorrow morning.

We went shopping, and I got a pair of Sherpa shoes, aka Maoist shoes. Anna had bought a pair in Namche. They are simple cloth runners, in green camoflauge.

At 3:30, Anna, Harold and myself went to Porters Progress, a non-profit organization supporting porters. They were showing a BBC documentary, "Carrying the Load", I think it was called, about porters in Nepal, and their working conditions. It was filmed in 2000, and Harold remarked to the guys working there that it's not as bad now as it was in 2000. The guy agreed, and said it is much better now. I donated my New Balance running shoes (the ones I trekked in) to Porters Progress, hopefully some porter can make good use of them. Seamus didn't come because he was sulking because me, Harold and Anna used all the hot water in our showers...he had to go cold.

Back to lodge, we sat in the restaurant and played cards and listened to music. At 5:00, the army pulled barbed wire across the runway. None of the locals had seen that before, they had no idea what was going on. In the paper today, there was a story about a new European helicopter that was set to fly from Lukla today, it was going to attempt to fly between 9000 and 10000 metres, way higher than any other helicopter ever flew. The previous record for a helicopter was under 7000 metres. If it's successful, it could mean great things for getting injured climbers off of the mountains much quicker.

Anna and Seamsu kept buying fresh tomatoes on the street and eating them in the restaurant. Between the two of them, they ate two kilograms of tomatoes.

There's a curfew in Lukla, at 7:00, the army shuts it down. So, you have to stay in your lodge after 7:00.

For supper, I had yak steak. It was quite delicious, but mine was kind of fatty. I think I got a fatty piece, because Harolds was fine (he's had two yak steaks while here). Lakpa also brougt us some local booze...it smelled like rice whiskey, but he said it wasn't. I partook in a small glass, but the other three, couldn't finish theirs.

To bed about 9:00.