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Everest Base Camp : Day 1 - Lukla to Monjo

Sunday, July 7, 2019 12:31

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Rara is an engineer by profession, a traveler by heart, a marathon runner by dreams and a certified scuba diver. She also blogs at http://muncity.blogspot.com

Doing the EBC trek independently

When I was planning my trip, I relied a lot on other trekkers’ account of their trip. Their day-to-day tale helped me with my confidence as I had some ideas how hard or easy the daily hike would be.

Sharing my day-to-day basis on the EBC trek last November 2018 so that you can decide if it’s right for you.

Lukla, the starting point of the EBC trek, is a small mountainside town in north-eastern Nepal. Getting here required taking a flight from Kathmandu. Alternatively, if you want to save cost or if your flight gets cancelled, you can take a bus or van to Jiri and hike from there but this will add four more days to your hiking journey.

The view from the flight was amaaaay-zingggg!!!

the Himalayas

Pro tip: Sit on the left side of the plane for the gorgeous mountain view. Hang on tight and say your prayer when you’re landing in Lukla as it’s one of the most dangerous airports in the world! The airport runway is very short and is angled upwards into the mountain in order to help arriving aircraft slows down. This same incline becomes a decline for the airplane taking off, helping them gain more speed to become airborne faster.

Lukla Airport runway

As I exited the airport gate, a few locals approached me to offer porter service but I’ve made up my mind to do this on my own so I just smiled at them, shook my head and walked away. I felt a bit lost as I was alone but I pretended like I knew what I was doing. I just followed the path where everybody was going.

Lukla is situated at 2,860 metres, so I just lingered around for a while to acclimatize. I wanted to go to the toilet badly so I went inside one of the teahouse. Nobody was inside except an old lady, probably the owner. I asked her permission to use the toilet. Without saying anything, she just pointed downstairs. Done with my business, I felt awkward. I mean, I used the toilet and the owner didn’t ask anything in return. So I sat down and ordered breakfast.

Nepali bread for breakfast

After my meal, I took my own sweet time to reorganize some of the things inside my backpack.

Ready to start the journey, I paid my bills, and went out. By this time, there weren’t many trekkers left as perhaps most of them started their journey right away after landing. I just walked along the path and arrived at the Solukhumbu checkpoint. You have to pay the Rs 2000 local fees here.

Just a hundred meter away, an archway awaited me. The archway that I’ve seen many times on the Internet, the starting point of the trek.

gateway to the Himalayas

I can say the first day of the trek was the easiest. Well.. of course I was full of energy and very excited for the journey ahead so it felt ‘easy’. But really, the trek to Phakding was mostly downhill; which is really nice right now, but definitely going to be hell on my way back hahaha.

mani stones

Passing the villages, I encountered countless mani stones and mani wheels. The stone, inscribed with Buddhist mantra, is one of the most popular forms of prayer and ritual in Tibetan culture. If you come across it, walk clockwise around them (take the left side).

Phakding village

bar on the mountain

Dudh Kosi

one of the many suspension bridges

I reached Phakding around noon. Made friend with Ali while I was waiting for my turn to cross the suspension bridge. He’s the guide-porter for two ladies from Singapore. Also made friend with Abu, a guide for an Indian guy. (Clearly I made up their names cos I am sorry guyssss… I forgot your names). These locals, they were so concerned of me trekking alone. But they were confident I could do it and from them, I learnt the phrase ‘bistari.. bistari’, which means ‘slowly..slowly’. Go slow to avoid the Altitude Mountain Sickness (AMS).

mushroom pizza for lunch

Ali suggested I continue my journey to Monjo. According to him, it would take less than two hours to reach. It was still early and I was still feeling good so after lunch at Sunrise Lodge & Restaurant, I continued trekking. Heading to Monjo required a bit of trekking up but nothing strenuous. While taking a rest later, Abu and his client passed by. They were also heading to Monjo. Abu recommended me to stay at Mount Kailash Lodge so when I reached Monjo, I went looking for the teahouse.

Luckily they have available room so I decided to stay the night there.

Egg vege fried rice and hot lemon for dinner

Had my dinner, and spent some time on the net (paid for the Wifi cos my network was super slow) before retreating to my room. The room came attached with bathroom (and hot shower!) so I had a good first night (and day) on the trek.

Lukla to Monjo map

Elevation at Lukla: 2,860 m

Elevation at Monjo: 2,855 m
Elevation Loss: 5 m

Distance: 13 km

Duration: 7 1/2 hours, including lunch break

Amount spent:
Breakfast – Rs 100
Lunch – Rs 700
Dinner – Rs 530
Wifi & charging at Mount Kailash Lodge – Rs 500
Night stay at Mount Kailash Lodge, 2 bedroom AC with attached bath – Rs 700
Solokhumbu fee – Rs 2000
Total = Rs 4530

Source: http://muncity.blogspot.com/2019/07/everest-base-camp-day-1-lukla-to-monjo.html

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