Everest Base Camp Trek - Day 1

Lukla to Benkar 2,720 4:04 hours trekking time

We woke up at quarter to five this morning to get to the airport for our flight to Lukla. To start the Everest Base Camp trek, you have to fly from Kathmandu to Lukla or hike 5 extra days from Jiri. We chose to fly. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 7:25, but was delayed by 4 hours due to air traffic congestion at the Kathmandu airport.

While waiting, we kept on asking when our plane was getting in and the ticket agent kept on saying 30 minutes, 30 minutes. Finally after 3.5 hours, we were told we would have to wait for another 5 to 10 minutes. Our plane was very, very late. We were supposed to have breakfast in Lukla, but sadly, we didn't take off until 11:00 and were so hungry on the plane since we hadn't eaten since the previous night. We had to wait on the plane for a while becasue there were so many planes leaving. When we finally left, the plane tilted to the left as if to turn, and it was very scary. The plane ride was a bit turbulent throughout. We were not very high so we could clearly see houses and trees and of course, mountains. The flight was very, very scary. Lukla's airport is the most dangerous in the world because the runway is extremely short and Lukla sits at 9,500 feet above sea level. When you land there are three options. 1) land, 2) hit a wall or 3) fall off a cliff. Luckily, we got the safest option. The plane was also very small. It only had 15 passengers, 2 pilots and 1 flight attendant.

We were very thankful to leave, even though we were delayed. We met quite a few people at the airport who had been waiting 27 hours to leave for their trek. At least we got to leave on the day we were supposed to fly out.

We finally got to Lukla at around 12:00. We grabbed our bags and then found a place to eat breakfast/lunch. We were supposed to arrive in Lukla at 8:00, so we were planning on eating breakfast when we got there, but instead had a good lunch before starting our trek.

When we finally had all our permits and everything, we started trekking. Our original plan was to go from Lukla to Monjo, which is about 5 hours. Due to our delayed flight, we didn't make it all the way to Monjo before it started getting dark out and cold. Once the sun goes down behind the mountains, it gets very cold out. We stopped in a little village called Bankar, about an hour away from Monjo. We got some rooms in a teahouse and ordered our dinner. There was another trekker from Japan who had quit his job to travel because in Japan you only get 5 days of holidays per year.

Along the way, we saw lots of really cool things. There were lots of mules and yaks that we had to pass on the way. We were stuck behind a big group of mules for 45 minutes before we could pass them. We also had to pass a smaller group of yaks that had big pointy horns. I really don't like yaks!

For some of the trek, we could see big, snowy mountains in the distance. It was spectacular and we had to stop frequently so that my mom could get photos.

Lots of the little villages along the way have cows, chickens and stray dogs in them. When we were passing through one of the towns, a dog started following us. It followed us for an hour, until we got to Bankar. Neve even named it Floppy. Floppy didn't leave us until we had to go into the teahouse.

It got dark outside really fast, and not very long after we decided to stop for the day, it was completely dark outside. It also got cold quickly. We went from being too hot in long sleeved shirts to being freezing and wearing down jackets and hats. After 15 minutes of trekking, we were already really hot. We were wearing sweaters and jackets and with our big bags which weighed between 11 and 24 lbs it was super hot. We had to stop to take off our layers.

Today, the altitude wasn't too high, and we didn't go up a lot, so we could walk a little faster than the other days. After today, we'll have to go slower to prevent alititude sickness.

Another thing we have to do to prevent altitude sickness is drink a lot of water. We have to drink around 4 litres of water every day each. My dad also wants us to drink electrolytes, but the mint flavor we bought is really disgusting. When I tasted it in Lukla, I spit it out!

Because we didn't go to Monjo today, we are going to have an extra hour of walking tommorow.

SophieRead more