09
2014From Kathmandu to Namche Bazar
A lot happened since the last post but I had no internet connection until now. So let me summarize up:
Wednesday, May 7th
We should have flown to Lukla on that day but the wheather on the way and in Lukla was against it. So we spent half a day at the airport waiting. There have even been speculations that we might get there by helicopters. Then suddenly all went very fast and we were rushed into the airport bus to the plane. We took off in that tiny plane and after we approached Lukla at a distance of 20km the pilot turned around because there was a big wall of clouds and rain.
So back to town and another hotel. After dinner we decided to go back to the big stupa and go around turning every prayer wheel on the way to ask for good weather the next day.
Thursday, May 8th
Our prayers have been heard and we finally managed to get to Lukla!
On our first and rather short walk of 4 hours we encountered the transportation specialists of this mountain region. The first specialist is the porter. And the second picture below shows a kind of ‘truck stop parking lot’ where the porters put their load before the enter a small snack bar.
The second transportation specialist are the Zopkyo (pronounced ‘Jopkyu’) which are hybrids of Yak and Cattle.
Then we arrived at our first lodge which was rather luxurious for mountain standards. It even had hot shower.
Friday, May 9th
Today was one of our hardest trips where we gained at least 800m and most of the track were step steps. At the beginning it was still rather flat and we passed a lot of mani stones and prayer wheels which we always turned to keep our karma high 🙂
One of the highlights have been the suspension bridges which crossed rivers: