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Friday, 28 October 2005 |
Date: 2005-10-28 01:32:14
Geo Coord: 27.71146N 85.32034E
Altitude: 4230
Lukla to Katmandu (maybe): We awoke to a slow drizzling rain and the entire mountain was engulfed in a dark gray cloud. We were expecting to have a quick breakfast and then go to the airport, which was a 5-minute walk from the lodge.  When we did not even get a glimmer of movement from our porters at 9pm we had pretty much discounted our chance for departure that day. We all sat in the cold lodge dining room and read books. I started to sort photos and write the days journal entry. An hour later the sun broke through and we all hoped for the heavy clouds to burn off. At 1030 we heard a plane land at the nearby airport. We packed our things and went to the chaotic Lukla airport. The airport is unlike any western airport. There are no lines just mobs of people with piles of gear scrambling over one another. The runway is chiseled into the hill and is only several hundred meters long. A 50 yard by 50 yard patch of cement allowed up to four small planes or a helicopter to pirouette around each other to let people on. They would not even turn off the planes as they landed, they just slammed into the runway, which was at a 30 percent incline and spun around at the end to load and unload passengers. There are 5 competing companies taking off from this small airport. You have a ticket with no seat, no flight number and no time. You just hope the next flight in will be your airline and you hope it has enough room on it when you scramble onto the runway for a seat. After 2 and a half hours of waiting we finally got lucky to get on an airplane. We scurried for our seats and our luggage was loaded (we hope). In fact there is not guarantee that your luggage is on the same flight you are on. It just gets ferried by each flight to the other destination. When we arrived we had to wait for two more flights to come in with our full groups luggage.
When we touched down in Katmandu, and recovered all of our luggage, our guide haggled with a mini bus driver to pack all our stuff and people into. Soon we were off to our hotel to take much-needed showers. We ended up staying at the Yak and Yeti hotel.  It is one of the nicest hotels in Katmandu and we figured we would splurge on it to have hot water and great restaurants to reacclimatize ourselves to civilization. Before we split up to go to our respective hotels, Simon and Nicolas agreed to meet us for dinner at the Everest steak house so we could cap off our trip. We also invited Dengie to join us. Nicolas had read about the restaurant and had recommended it to the group. The only problem was that he thought the name of the restaurant was the Katmandu steak house. So that night for half an hour Shawna and I searched downtown Thamal for the Katmandu steak house with no luck. People on the street kept directing us to the Everest Steakhouse or to the Katmandu Guest House, so we ended up poking our head in the Everest Steakhouse before giving up. We saw the back of Simon’s head in crowded restaurant and soon all of us straggled in having experienced the same problem. We had an excellent meal and an enjoyable evening before calling is day and returning to our hotel. Shawna and I plan to get some shopping in and relaxing on Friday before catching the flight back home.
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