Day 20: Lukla to Kathmandu

Approximate Trekking Time: N/A

Distance: WHO CARES! WE FLYIN’!

Overnight Elevation: N/A

Waking early, we packed up and headed downstairs for breakfast, consuming our Tibetan breads while we watched some of the first election results for the U.S. Presidential election pour in. Not many state results were in yet and we’d have to wait until we returned to Kathmandu to watch the remainder of the election coverage.

We headed over to the airport terminal early, only about 100 meters from our lodge doorstep. While it hadn’t been obvious when we flew in, the Lukla Airport did indeed have a small and organized, if not somewhat chaotic, terminal. Arranged around a large open room, each airline had a small check-in desk and baggage scale; windows along the west side of the building overlooked the small tarmac, runway, and flight tower.

A few groups stood in line at some of the airline desks and piles of large duffels were scattered around the room. We were the first in line at the empty Simrik desk. As the clock ticked closer and closer to 7am, the room crowded with more and more people, the piles of duffels grew larger, and men in yellow vests ran in and out of the terminal from the tarmac with the flurry of activity that accompanied each flight arrival and departure.

We waited and waited. A large cue formed behind us, but still no one occupied the other side of the desk. The room filled. Every other airline desk had people staffing it. Seriously Simrik, pull your shit together!

Finally, a Simrik agent arrived and, despite being the first in line, she was rushed by trekking guides and travel agents, all trying to get seats for their clients. After a few guides pushed their way to the counter and the scales ahead of us, we put a dog in the fight and became equally pushy. Pointing to our names on her flight list and handing her the tickets, we pushed our bags onto the scales and were finally issued baggage stubs and tickets. What a fight. If we had been anywhere other than the very front of the line, we would have never gotten tickets for the next flight. There were many trekkers in line behind us that were apparently told to come back later. Take home message: arrive early and respectably, but aggressively, push for your tickets along with everyone else. The group guides will scoop up all the tickets for their clients if you aren’t proactive.

From here, we dropped our packs at the baggage counter, where they would be sorted into carts for the appropriate flights, and joined the male and female lines for a check of any small bags we were carrying. While these checks usually included a brief pat down, they skipped this portion, asking only if we were carrying any weapons or flammable items. Shawn was asked twice whether he had any cigarettes or a lighter, I guess owing to his wild hippy beard, they didn’t believe him after the first time they asked and checked again.

From here it was a waiting game. What time did the flight leave? When your plane showed up, that’s what time. For all the inefficiencies in Nepal, the flight turn-around time in Lukla is not one of them, as we’d noted upon our arrival to Lukla. Five minutes to land, de-board, board, and get the bird back in the air. We watched this marvel of organized chaos with every plane… Tara… Sita… Tara… Sita… GOMA… finally the Simrik plane cruised up the runway. No sooner than the passengers were off the plane, we marched on, buckled up, accepted our cotton balls (remembered this time) and Lacto-Fun candies, and cruised down the runway and into the sky.

Other than low clouds in some of the valleys, the day was crisp and clear as we flew away from the massive snow-capped giants we hiked among just days before, soaring high above the crop-terraced hillsides and back toward the sprawling haze of Nepal’s capital. Eventually the plane made a giant 180° swath and we touched down in Kathmandu, the air heavy with oxygen. Our bodies rejoiced!