31 March – Kathmandu to Lukla to Monjo

The day had arrived to start the trek proper. At the appointed hour, we schlepped our duffels to the front of the hotel to have them weighed and placed in the appropriate queue for transport to the airport - except for regular carry-on luggage containing more routine travel clothes and accouterments which would stay behind in the offices of the outfit with which we are trekking.

The airport was, in turns, chaotic (arrival, security) and boring (waiting, waiting, waiting) and blah blah, blah ba da blah blah blah. I mean, really, what can I say about waiting for the helicopter that anyone wants to read? I sure as heck don’t want to write about it. Check out this picture instead.

It's really important to keep your boarding pass warm

We were in the last group to leave Kathmandu, and arrived ahead of only one other flight. Most of the rest of the group had already hit the trail, but we headed for a restaurant in Lukla and had a snack until those in the last flight caught up.

Lukla is at roughly 2790 metres altitude (9150 ft). Monjo, where we would be staying the night, is at roughly the same elevation as Lukla. However, the trail between the two undulates up and down. I think we must easily have gained 200 metres during the hike, though we simply gave it back on the downhill stretches. One of my weaknesses while hiking is that I tend to focus overly much on the trail. I have to remind myself to take a look around once and a while. On this hike, I came around a corner, looked up, and was greeted by a pointy mountain. A remarkably pointy mountain. The Himalayas, mind you, are a young range. Still being formed in fact; the peaks gain something on the order of four inches per year. They are all pointy. But every time I look up and see a pointy mountain I haven’t seen before, I’m still filled with a sense of awe.

Just hanging out bein', you know, a Himalaya.

Pointy mountains are ubiquitous, as are prayer wheels, prayer flags, and stones carved with religious inscriptions.

On the road from Lukla to Monjo

Note the building on the left. There is very little mortar between those stones. All of them are hand-chiseled. We passed a couple of sites today where similar buildings were being built and the stones being properly fashioned. Our guide estimated that a building such as the one in the photo would take about two years to build.