Phakding - 8,995 Ft.

At 5:00 this morning I met my Nepali guide, Min, in my hotel lobby and headed to the Kathmandu Airport to begin my two week journey to the Mount Everest Base Camp.

Airport standards in Nepal aren't quite what they are in the United States. When the man overseeing secruity asked me if I had a knife in bag bag I said no, and he waved me through. I rode a dirty rickety bus across the tarmac to board my Yeti Airlines flight to Lukla, Nepal. When I saw the plane I'd be riding on, I judged it to be about as flight-worthy as the bus. It didn't help that a wild monkey was wandering freely on the runway.
In 2007 I booked a “Scenic Mountain Flight” that flew along the edge of the Himalayas to Mount Everest before returning to Kathmandu. With my flight to Lukla this morning I got transportation to the nearest airstrip to Mount Everest with a scenic flight as a bonus. Myself and the six other passengers rode in the low-flying plane as it barely cleared rocky mountain peaks in the foothills of the Himalayas. I stared past the lush green hills to the snow-covered behemoths in the distance, straining to get any view I could. Forty minutes after take-off the plane lowered towards the center of a massive green mountain and suddenly touched down on what is possibly the world's shortest runway, braking hard before coming to a sudden stop. The slope of the airstrip added some excitement to the landing as well - one end is 200 feet higher than the other.
Min and I stopped for a quick breakfast at a teahouse in Lukla, then began our hike to Phadking, where we would rest for the night. Before leaving home I looked up picutres online of the Everest Base Camp trek. The photos I saw of scenery high in the Himalayas was incredible, but I had no idea it would be so impressive as far down as Lukla. Lush, green mountains towered thousands of feet above us on both sides, and the milky white Dudh Kosi river raged through the center of the canyon. A few times today we hiked past massive green valleys. A handful of whitewashed houses with brightly colored roofs sat in the center of the valleys and made the scenery a perfect photo-op.
While hiking we passed through a few small Himalayan villages. First came Chablung, then Ghat and Churikhada.. As we passed thorough, the sounds of clanking bells attached to wandering yaks broke the serene silence of the foothills of the Himalayas. I asked Min what plants were contributing to the fresh, natural scent along the trail. He pointed out to me a “Sala Dupe Pine Tree”, as well as a leafy green plant called a “Daturo”. In Phadking I checked in to the Kalapatthar Guest House and then crashed onto my thin mattress for a three-hour nap. The hike today wasn't too strenuous, but I laid awake for most of last night and was absolutely exhausted by this afternoon. Later on I wandered into the dining room of the guest house, where Min was playing card games with several Nepali friends. I ordered a large plate of spaghetti and chowed down. Min and his friends played on for hours.

Of course I'm excited to get a few good views of Everest during the next couple of weeks, but one of the sights I'm most excited about is a town called Namche Bazaar. Namche is a trading village 11,000 feet high in the Himalayas, perched at the edge of a foothill. I looked up several picutures of Namche Bazaar back home and have been excited to see it for months. Tomorrow Min and I will reach Namche after a five hour hike, and will spend the remainder of the day there as well as an additional day to acclimatize to the altitude. To most people Namche is just another stop along the Everest Base Camp trail, but for some reason it has always seemed so exotic and spectacular to me. It's amazing to me that right now, it's only a five hour walk away.