(I tried not to make this too wordy, but if you want just skip the texts and look at the pictures, I think with the captions it should cover anything of import.)

Flew here to start out my trip. Although well maintained, the landing strip for this airport is ridiculously short and ends in the side of a mountain, no second chances.

The landing strip in Lukla, mountain on one end, 1000 ft drop on the other

The whole town is built around the arrival and departure of tourists. I went to the first guesthouse and arranged for my porter. I initially asked for a woman, but they couldn’t find any. So I got Porky. Yes, that was his name, but he was anything but. Spoke very little English, but she assured me it was enough to tell me how far we had to go (he always said way too long, except for the one part of the trek that I was dying, in which he said way to short) and which mountains were which. She was right.

My prop plane to Lukla

The first day was mostly downhill to the village of Phakding, only 3 hours, but a nice way to start the trip. Got the taste of guesthouse life. We normally arrive a few hours before sundown. I usually had a room with two single beds (of varying widths). You need to place your order for dinner by 5 and tell them when you want it served. Then you huddle around the stove for the rest of the evening (they build the fire when it starts to get dark although it is supercold well before that) until it is time to go to bed (usually between 7-8pm). Wake up around 6am and leave by 7:30-8:30 depending on what you tell your porter/guide the night before. Pretty simple life. In Phakding, I had the first of what would be an almost daily plate of Vegetable Momos, a Tibetan dumpling filled with fried veges (usually some combination of spinach, carrots, and cabbage). The menu at every guesthouse was virtually identical. You could have dal bhat (the Nepali staple) which is rice (bhat) and lentils (dal – a watery version of this) with fried veges. This normally is all you can eat. Other options are fried noodles, macaroni, or rice with veges, egg, cheese (yak) or some combination of the above. Yak meat is available in most things too. Potatoes – french fries or hash browns. It seems they really only know how to fry things. All in all tho, the food wasn’t that bad considering everything has to be carried in (most of the villages are too high to grow anything). It did get more expensive the higher you got. My other comment about the food is that altitude makes your appetite diminish – and I was being constantly being told to eat more. It was no fun, having to eat when you don’t want to for weeks on end. A new experience for me, I felt like I was anorexic. I’d often just stare at my plate, hoping the food would disappear. And still my pants are a good bit bigger than when I started.