Month: September 2017

Days 1 to3 Kathmandu to Namche

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Leaving Kathmandu for Lukla, hopefully. A busy day today with a 4am start to be at the airport by 6, for a 6.30 flight to Lukla to start our trek. That is if the weather permits us flying, as the airport at Lukla is a manual landing requiring visual contact with the runway. Lukla airport is regarded as one of the hairiest places to land in the world, being both steep and short, finishing up the hill by a stone wall. Go too fast and the wall greets a new friend, misjudge the landing and crash into the ravine. Being able to see the runway becomes somewhat important, and the early morning weather deemed this improbable, so we sat around the unairconditioned departure lounge waiting for the clouds to lift. 6.30 turned into 9.30, then luckily we had the all clear to board for the 30 minute flight on a tiny 17 seater twin prop plane. But not before sitting on the tarmac for 30 minutes in the searing heat with no air conditioning in …

Two Days in Kathmandu

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We got into Kathmandu at about 10.30 on Saturday night, but didn’t get to our hotel till about 12.30am due mainly to the shambles that is arrivals at the airport. Filling out Visa forms on ancient computers, lining up to pay for the visa, then queuing to go thru hand luggage scanning. Why? No idea, but only one machine worked, and regardless of whether it flashed red or green, the security guy just sat looking bored as. The baggage collection area was a sea of bags, flung every which way. Finally, after finding our bags randomly, a crawl thru to bag inspection, then thankfully out looking for our lift. A complete dogs breakfast! Our ride was there, so all ended well. Sunday was catch up with sleep morning till about 9, breakfast, then out to find coffee and a few supplies. Nepal is a third world country and Kathmandu fits the bill nicely. It is a glorious riot of crazy electrics, wild traffic on crumbling roads, cars and bikes competing for precious space, horns playing …

Melbourne to Kathmandu, via KL

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Our journey begins at Melbourne International Airport, which would manage a miserably low score of about 2/10, and the 2 is for speed through customs, the rest, forget it! The whole place is under renovation, except Hungry Jacks, which should be!! Seriously folks, the most diabolical excuse for a hamburger EVER!! The queue went for ever, courtesy of being about the only joint open, and the end result…. This was Liz’s first Hungry Jacks experience, next time we’ll just slap two bits of cardboard together with a sliver of grease. To wash the horror out of our system we went searching for a drink, with limited success. Every promised offering was “coming soon”! Finally a beer was secured in a random bar, then thank God, our flight boarded. Thanks to changed layover times, we had 12 hours to kill in Kuala Lumpur which luckily included use of the airport hotel for the day. Man, the bed looked enticing, but why catch up on no sleep when you can schleep around town for a few hours? …

Everest Base Camp via Gokyo Lake

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I have been hinting, suggesting, and trying pathetic mind games on Rachael for quite some time now regarding a particular ‘bucket list’ item of mine. An item that needed to be ticked off while my knees could still hack it, not to mention the achilles, back, hammies, feet, shoulders etc, etc! Paris, London, Berlin? Exotic river cruising down the Nile, maybe? Doing the ‘sound of music’ in Salzburg, or catching the Orient Express? Nah….how ‘bout a nice pleasant stroll in the fresh air? A nice, LONG meander! Having not done any hiking/trekking for over 30 years, why not, how about…pretty please can we….take a stroll up to Everest Base Camp? How hard can it be? Oh, and seems as we are there, lets not do the standard 13 day trek like the sensible folk, but whatcha reckon we add a few days (5!) and make it harder (a lot) by going via the Gokyo Lakes? The views will be great, the track quieter (‘cos most people are sensible), and the air fresher, thinner, and just …