Kathmandu to Phakding

We were picked up from the Hotel Shanker at 1000 and headed for the domestic terminal with our guide Sudar (Sid). The domestic terminal was one large room for check-in and complete chaos, with mounds of trekking equipment covering nearly the entire floor. We were several hours early for our flight and Sudar had us go upstairs and get some tea while we waited. We saw other people from the hotel in the restaurant who were scheduled to leave early in the morning. They were delayed for over three hours due to both the weather and lack of planes since two of the three carriers had stopped service. We began to have a bad feeling as we heard few flight announcements and saw Sudar frantically trying to get us on a flight. Finally, after 3 PM they cancelled the rest of the flights and we had to head back to the hotel, where we asked for a meeting with Narayan. We had an ugly meeting when we found out that we actually had standby tickets and would probably have a repeat performance. Needless to say, this was an unacceptable answer, and after everyone cooled down I gave HGT a range of options to guarantee us flying in the AM, including more expensive tickets, charter aircraft and charter helicopter. The rest of the group consented to the financial costs of the options and we went to dinner while HGT looked to see what was available.
Dinner was at the Kilroy Restaurant in Thamel, several blocks from the office. We sat outside and had mo mo's for appetizers (sort of dumplings with a hot dipping sauce), and then for the main course Sean had Mutter Paneer and Patrick had Chicken Tikka Masala. Dinner was by candlelight since there were scheduled rolling blackouts for power conservation that lasted until 8PM. While at dinner Sudar cane and told us they had charted a Pilatus 430 for the early AM for $200 additional per person by also taking one of their solo clients on the same flight. That was the good news; the bad news was we had to leave the hotel at 4:30 AM in order to be at the head of the line at the airport, which opened at 5:45 AM.
We all walked back to the Hotel Shanker and slept for a few hours before a 3:30 AM wakeup. We met the other client, from Athens, Georgia and headed to the airport where we were very close to the head of the line. This time Sudar got us checked in for our charter, we were finally issued boarding passes and at 7:00 AM were taken by bus to the plane. The duffel bags had already been loaded and we boarded, 8 people and 7 seats, so the guide for the other client sat on the floor on top of a duffel bag.
The flight was about 40 minutes long, with some excitement cresting over the tops of some ridges at 11,500 feet before the steep descent and turn into the Tenzing/Hillary Airport at Lukla, which has an elevation of 9200 feet. We went to a lodge and had breakfast, really good and purchased water for the trek to Phakding, about 8km away. The group headed out at 9:30 AM and set a steady pace of about 2 mph, stopping often for photos and we meandered up and down, more net down, crossing our first suspension bridge and several other bridges. We passed through several small settlements under partly cloudy skies, but warm enough to hike in T-shirts except the last few minutes. The partly cloudy skies obscured many of the peaks, but we got occasional glimpses of several peaks greater than 6500 meters (more than 21000 feet).
The trail was busy, with Yak trains, porters and other trekkers headed in both directions, everyone giving way to the Yaks and most respecting the tradition of always going clockwise around the Buddhist shrines and spinning the prayer wheels in a clockwise direction.

Our charter flight after landing at Lukla

The crew at breakfast in Lukla, Sean Patrick, Emma, Paul and Eduardo

Along the trail to Phakding

By 12:30 PM we were at the Beer Garden Lodge in Phakding, at an elevation of 2658 meters (8720 feet). Since it was lunch time we sat in the dining room and shared a large pot of lemon tea and ordered lunch. Everyone in the group ordered either a noodle or rice dish. We then headed to our rooms, which had ensuite bathrooms, twin beds and even electric lights. The beds have foam mattresses and pillows, but we sleep in our down bags on top of the beds. Unpacking enough from our duffels, we showered under barely lukewarm water and then wandered around the small collection of lodges and teahouses which is Phakding. Across the river we could see tents pitched for trekkers who were camping and were very glad we were in a lodge, even with unheated rooms.