Namche Bazaar to Lukla (22 Oct 2006)

I woke up in the morning, looking out from the window and admired Mt. Thamserku and other snow-capped mountains for the last time. I stayed in the same room 17 days ago. I had stayed in this region for 18 days ……it’s like a dream, a beautiful dream.

There are shops selling trekking equipment, warm clothing and souvenirs at Namche. We shopped for a while before retrace our steps back to Lukla. 9.30pm, our trekking guide stopped us from shopping and pushed us to start the journey. We walked down quickly the steep hill but often delayed by the slow yak train. We crossed the bridge at the bottom of the hill and reached Jorsale at 11.00am. We lunched at Riverview restaurant. Sui Jing put on the video camera and asked everyone to say something for recording. I remembered a few of it:-

Teck Long : Am I good looking?
Peng Meng: A lot of yaks.
Kok Ming : Too “snake” ( very easy and leisure trip for him )
Jing Yee (myself) : Get cough . Can’t believe I reached Kalapattar.

We continue journey to Phakding after lunch. The weather changed very quickly. It was raining, then stopped and raining again. Nepalese are in festival mood. Porters are singing happily. We came to the Maoist counter after crossing a bridge. We showed them receipt and by passed. A trekker told us that now the Maoist asked for 100 Rupees per day. If you would like to trek for 18 days, which mean you have to pay 1800 Rupees to them. Well, it’s cheaper than what we paid. We paid 2500 Rupees previously. X-(

We reached Phakding at 3pm. Guide told us that there is still another 2 hours to Lukla. At Khumbu valley, the distance is measured by number of hours needed walking from one place to another. If you have doubt on what I am saying, refer to photo on right.

The walk from Phakding to Lukla seems longer than I remembered. I had finished all my drinking water, legs tired but Lukla still hasn’t come into sight. Kok Yuen, Sui Jing and I stopped at Cheffung to have rest and tea break. A cup of hot lemon tea made me warm. Hai Poh, Foung Yee, Kok Ming and Man (trekking guide) arrived after a while. Man didn’t stop for long as he would like to go Lukla to confirm the flight for tomorrow. We rest for about 40 minutes. It’s 4.50pm when we continue our way to Lukla.

I reached Lukla at 5.30pm. There are a lot of people singing and dancing at the street. I think this is the way they celebrate Deepavali. I was very tired, rested at room before going up to restaurant to order dinner. Hai Poh was not feeling well. He went back to room for rest after dinner. Foung Yee and I also got sick. We cough badly. Luckily I only got sick when the journey was going to end. Tonight will be our last night at Khumbu valley.

p/s: Lai, you look cute and pretty in this photo. Nobody can say you are ugly now. ;)