Lukla Airport - what's all the fuss about!!

Up at 4am for transfer to airport and flight to Lukla.

A beautiful early morning for our flight to Lukla

I have been looking forward to this flight since I first read about it. Go on-line and see all the hype about the trip to the No. 1 most Dangerous Airport in the World. Nothing like a bit of a thrill to get this adventure off to a great start. (have a look at this YouTube video Lukla Airport )

This is our plane - Looks OK? - Baggage crammed into every available space.

This tiny plane came complete with our own air hostess. After being crammed into our seats she gave each of us a sweet to suck and two cotton wool balls. Looks like this going to be a noisy flight too. 

Here we go...

We fly above and through the mountains to reach Tenzing-Hilllary airport in Lukla. I am told the pilots use sight as opposed to instruments to navigate their way into the airport. 

Apart from some minor turbulence our flight went off without incident with a perfect landing and docking.

Only half our team got on the first flight. We moved from the airport to a small restaurant where we enjoyed our breakfast and waited for the remainder of our group to join us.

You Must Haggle
(but please make sure they make a profit : )  )
I took a short stroll into a nearby street to purchase a map showing the trail to Everest Base Camp. I was unaware the young girl was actually haggling with me about the price. This is what they expect. She clearly thought I was demented or suffering from the effect of being at 2800mts. She kept bringing the price down. As my hearing is slightly impaired I did not always hear what she was saying so she picked up a calculator and entered the amount she wanted. As I fumbled with my notes she presented me with a lower number. And so it went without me ever objecting to the price. I also purchased some bottled water for this first day on the mountains. 

When I rejoined the group I told them what I paid for the map. It was a small fraction of what others had paid after haggling. I could not claim any credit for being a good haggler as this was a very one sided event. I just hope she still made a profit, I'm sure she did.
On the issue of water, I had taken sterilising tablets with me but in the end decided I would purchase bottled water each day instead. We had been warned that it would get more expensive the higher up the mountains we went. This is completely understandable as everything has to be carried up the mountains on yaks or manually by the locals. They are a relatively small people but yet they can carry weights greater than I could lift, just amazing.

The rest of our group arrive

Eventually the rest of our trekking group arrive. We all meet the trek staff and porters who will assist us for the rest of our journey to Base Camp and back. While the second part of our team get some food our bags are loaded up to be transferred to our destination for day 1. At this point there was some uncertainty because of the late arrival of the second half of our group.