I was really looking forward to the tour that would take me up to the Everest Base Camp. So, it was only natural that I started early morning for the flight of 7:30 AM.
We were a team unofficially led by photojournalist Bikash Karki and including Samaya Weekly’s Bhaswor Ojha, Kantipur Television’s Deep Gambir Singh Rayamajhi and Prakash Pariyar and American photojournalist Todd. We gathered at airport and board a Dronier of Sita Air.
The most amazing thing that I saw before the flight was how they kept the cargo in the passenger aircraft. Since we were only 11 traveling to Lukla, the airlines officials took out other seats and made space for all kinds of things. It was though natural because everything in the Lukla region entered by air.
I was first to board the plane and I walked through biscuits packs. I took the seat just behind the cockpits (I told the others I wanted to ensure everything will go right in cockpit). It was my first domestic flight though I have traveled a few times on international flights. I actually liked the flight because it flew low enough to let me watch the hills and houses.
The 30-minute flight ended soon landing us at the sloppy Lukla Airport. We ate breakfast and started off for Monju, half-way to Namche, but on the way we decided to go all the way to Namche and riding on the decision we regretted thousand times later we reached Namche 10 and half hours after starting. It was dark when we were there.
The walk was too tiring and I suggest anybody to take two days to go Namche from Lukla so there would be no aches. On the way, there are a few villages and every house of the village is either a shop or lodge. The walk actually was good until we were too tired to notice the beautiful waterfalls and hills and the majestic mountain tops.
