Day One
Lukla to Monjo (9,317 feet) - 4 Hours
After 3 days of trying, the fourth day flying to Lukla airport proved successful. The runway is crazily short and has a sharp incline to help stop the planes from crashing into the far wall. It's apparantly the most dangerous airport in the world and only 2 weeks earlier a plane crashed killing everyone onboard. We land safely and within minutes we're off on our first day trekking.
Our guide is called Bhim (pronounced "beam"). He's a helpful, Ewok-sized fella who makes Lucy look like a giant.
Rich and Bhim
As we walk out of Lukla, we're followed by friendly stray dogs who are after scraps of food from trekkers. Bhim demonstrates how a rock, thrown at their ribs persuades them not to follow. We walk for 4 hours on the first day stopping at a Phakding teahouse for a lunch of Dal Bhat (rice, lentil soup, vegetables with poppadom and pickles if you're lucky). This is a staple Nepali dish, perfect energy food, and we end up eating a lot on our way up through the Himalayas.
We finish our days walk at about 12pm, booking ourselves in at a lodge in Monjo. The lodges are beautifully made wooden creations with large dining rooms with a wood burning stove in the centre and the bedrooms upstairs. We retire to our room to read and relax and come down at 5pm to order our dinner. Lucy orders a veggie pizza which incredibly turns out to be a chapati with cabbage, carrot and yaks cheese sprinkled on top. It tastes absolutely foul and she doesn't order another pizza after that.
Lucy on the trails
Lodge dining room
Dal Bhat - Perfect food for after a hard days walk
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