Trek Day 1 - Kathandu to Lukla to Monjo - 11/1/10

View from the plane

So we got up early, packed our stuff for the trek, put the rest in Sarita's storage room and headed to the airport.  The trekking agency had changed guides on us after buying the plane tickets, so our guide had a ticket that wasn't in his name.  Oops.  Our flight was delayed a bit due to low visibility in Lukla, so Kopil (the guide) got a new ticket issued in his name in plenty of time to make our flight.  The flight itself was stunning -- great view of Boudhanath when we took off, amazing views of the foothills and little villages, and some mountain peaks as we dropped down into a valley to land at Tenzig-Hillary Airport in Lukla (elevation 9,196 ft.) -- supposedly the scariest airport in the world.  It wasn't so scary to me.  The plane that crashed into the wall at the end of the runway two weeks ago (break troubles) was still sitting there with a bit of a smashed nose.  It didn't look so bad.

We left the plane, walked toward the luggage, and then the chaos started -- we we swarmed by guys wanting to be our porters.  It was Kopil's job to hire the porters, but we had to veto a couple of his choices.  He was picking very young people, practically children and we thought our stuff was too heavy for them.  The funny thing was, once on trail we could see that our loads were very small in comparison to others.  You always here how incredibly strong the Sherpas are, but I'm beginning to realize that they're far stronger than I ever imagined.

Mani stones with Tibetan prayers

So we had lunch (I had my first yak steak -- yummy!) and hit the trail.  It was all so absolutely stunning everywhere you looked -- white water rapids, waterfalls, snow capped peaks.  We all got excited when we saw our first yak (which was actually a yak/cow hybrid called a dzo) and took a bunch of photos.  Funny thing is, I've seen more of them now than I can count.  And it's the same with prayer wheels, prayer flags, stupas, mani stones, suspension bridges, etc.  All of these items that you hope to see once are all in abudnace.  Just like cows in the streets of India.

Most trekkers to go Phakding on their first day, but the group decided to go 2 hours further to Monjo so that we'll have a shorter day tomorrow.  To be honest, I was struggling a bit with my heartbeat and breathing and really didn't want the extra distance, but I made it.  We got to Monjo (a very, very tiny village, elevation 9,235 ft.) not too long before dark, got cleaned up and had dinner.  Tonight we learned a few very important things:  1)  order dinner early -- they make each order fresh and they can take quite some time to make it to the table; 2)  do not order western food in the tiny villages -- my pizza with everything ended up being topped with shredded cabbage, shredded carrots, tuna and a swirl of ketsup; and 3)  it gets really cold at night.  Can't quite figure out why Bogdan and Irene decided to sleep outside in a tent since it was plenty cold inside.

Anyway, my legs are stiff and burning and I ache everywhere.  I don't think I chose the best day pack and I'm hoping to buy a better one in Namche Bazaar when we arrive tomorrow.  Off to bed.