unexpected everest (pt 1)

SINGAPORE-KUALA LUMPAR-KATHMANDU-LUKLA
 
I had never been so excited to take off before. At Changi, I was shaking with excitement, so so ready to start the trek up to base camp. I knew it would be a tough trek (I didn’t doubt that for a second), but I had absolutely no idea how not only physically, but also emotionally draining the next two weeks would be.

I was pleasantly surprised to find a Sushi Burrito at Changi Airport. I had been to the Tanjong Pagar location once before with my friend, Sophia (Soph- weren’t they amazing?!), and fell in love with it, so I had to pick it up!


After scarfing that down, I boarded my flight to KL.


From KL, I boarded my next flight to Kathmandu and 4 hours later, I had arrived! My mom was on a different flight with me since we decided to go on the trek at different times, so I met her while getting my visa on arrival. We met our guide, Kisim, outside of the airport and were off to our hotel!

Kisim greeted us with the most beautiful leis.

The next morning, my mom and I started the day with a simple breakfast- tea, eggs, and toast. We were being super cautious with what we ate so that we wouldn’t come down with any food poisoning before our trek.

After buying the necessary trekking equipment we didn’t have, we stopped for lunch.
We feasted on fried rice, momos (the dumplings), curry, and tea.



After lunch, we decided to explore a little bit. I liked how busy Kathmandu was, however on the return from our trek, I found it really overwhelming compared to the silent mountains.


After exploring and buying some chocolate for the next two weeks, we walked back to our hotel to pack for the next morning. Hotel Silver Home is a really wonderful place to stay. Harry is the best and will help you with absolutely anything you need!

At 5 am the next day, Kisim picked us up and brought us to KTM domestic airport. It was a small airport with not much to do, but that didn’t really matter as we were so excited to get going.

Unfortunately, weather plays a huge role in whether flights can take off or not. Lukla is a dangerous airport to fly into (nicknamed “World’s Most Dangerous Airport”), and flights very rarely take off on time. At around noon, our 6 am flight was cancelled, and we ended up waiting to see if the weather was clear enough in Lukla to take a helicopter. After waiting a grand total of 11 hours at the airport, we were given the OK to fly in a helicopter up to Lukla.

My mom and I got really lucky and got to sit in the copilot’s chair for the hour flight.

The views were incredible and made waiting 11 hours completely worth it. We were going to Lukla to start our trek!!!

Because we arrived in Lukla at around 4:30, when the sun sets, we decided to spend the night there and start trekking the next morning.

 
I had no idea how tough the next days were going to be.
How tough? Read part 2 here!