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With such an early flight the next day we knew we had to get an early night but we stumbled across a bar with a Nepalese cover band pumping out hits from Tracy Chapman and Cranberries so we ended up staying out late until the power cut out (a nightly occurance in Nepal due to "power shedding"). On the way back to the hotel the streets were pitch black. We were sitting ducks for a mugging but we made it safely back to our room ut only 4 hours later we were up again to catch our flight to Lukla. It was surreal driving through the dark streets so early in the morning. People were hudled by the fire of burning rubblish and others were getting their morning exercise before the streets turned into a chaotic traffic jam. The pollution and smoke so early in the morning made me dry reach in the back seat. The driver had to pull over and I jumped out of the car to get some "fresh air" (pretty hard to find believe me).
Poor Cal was terrified of getting on the plane. It was a rickety old light plane that seated about 16 and looked like it could fall out of the sky at any minute. I felt confident until we were about to take off and the noise was insane. It was like we were a rocket about to launch. The pilots saying prayers before take off didnt calm anyones nerves. Once we were up the noise didnt stop but the views of the mountains were incredible. The landing was not so incredible...
The runway at Lukla is on an angle so its not a very smooth landing. One of the English lady's let out a big scream which made everyone think we had crashed but I looked at the air hostess sitting next to me and she was just laughing.
As soon as we were off the plane we started trekking. Today was an easy walk for about three hours to a little village called Phakding. The walk was mainly downhill but the ground was a lot more rockey and hard to navagate than I imagined. In the interest of journalistic honesty Cal has requested that I admit that yes on the first day I had a stack. But in my defence it was more of a bounce. I hit the ground and was up again in about 1.5 seconds.
Our guide Gyanendra and our porter Jit are amazing. They tell us all the history and culture about everything we see. The trails are really quiet this time of year which is great becuase we get to see a lot of local Sherpa people carrying their goods between villages. They are the strongest people I've ever met. They carry these massive loads for eight hours a day. Some of the loads looked more than 30kgs carried by all people from men to kids and elderly women. They are truely amazing. Some of the wealthier people hire 'jockeys' which are like a yak crossed with an ox. When we cross paths with them we have to stay mountain side incase they get angry and push us off the steep slopes. At some places the cliff faces have a vertical drop of about 100-200m and the path is less than half a meter wide.
Todays walk was really enjoyable but we were warned that the next day is going to be the hardest of the whole trek so we think we should get an early night at our little tea lodge. We are the only people staying here and while it is no luxury hotel it is a lot more comfortable than I imagined. The weather in absolutly freezing!!! It gets really cold from about 1pm because we are in a little valley surrounded by mountains and there is very little sunlight during the day. Gyanendra thinks it will be zero degrees tonight. On with the thermals.
Right now we are huddled in front of the fire waiting for our dinner and getting pumped for our 6 hour trek uphill tomorrow!!!
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