Nov 18 2024 – Lukla to Kathmandu

Woke up this morning in Lukla. Last breakfast in the Khumbu. Headed down to the airport.

Security theater is extra weird at the airport in Lukla. I had my daypack on when I went through the metal detector. I set it off, nobody cared. Definitely had a pocket knife in there. However my trek pack, which went through the xray machine, got flagged because I had a rock in there. That’s apparently a huge problem, and they made me unpack everything so that they could confiscate the rock. That was going to be my trip souvenir, but I guess there’s some fear that if every visitor took a rock we’d cart away the entire Himalayas somehow.

Aircraft also fly on Buddha time. My flight was supposed to depart at 9AM. I showed up at the airport 2 hours early, because in the US that’s been drilled into travelers for decades now. The plane we were to be flying on didn’t even arrive at the airport until 10:15AM. So, it was a boring wait in a crowded room that was very much too small for everyone there.

The plane did eventually show up, and they collected our checked bags and ushered us out onto the tarmac for boarding. I did film the takeoff. Too big to upload. But, I was in the first row of seats, and discovered no FAA required locked cockpits here. I could see everything that was going on the whole flight.

Unlike the helicopter, which just flew in a more or less straight line from Kathmandu to Lukla, the flight headed south towards India, before heading west, and eventually back north to Kathmandu. Incidentally, I actually started to get airsick towards the end of the flight. Kept it down, literally, but those are not at all smooth aircraft.

In case anyone is curious what kind of plane that is, it’s a Dornier 228 twin turboprop. In that configuration it holds a maximum of 14 passengers. They’re not big planes.

Taxied from the airport to Thamel and got a hotel room. Wasn’t gonna mess with walking from the airport a second time.

After checking in to the hotel I decided to go buy a clean set of clothes since I definitely smell like I’ve been wearing the same clothes every day since October. That mission failed.

We’ve officially established Jennifer can’t tourist Kathmandu. A couple blocks away from my hotel I Ended up being approached by a kid in his early 20s who said he wasn’t a guide and was a student practicing his English. Asked if he could walk with me. I said yes. He showed me a bunch of sights, and kept the pushy guides at bay, for which I was grateful. The more we talked I eventually knew I was going to get hit up for a donation to his school. He attends a Buddhist art school which was heavily damaged in the 2015 earthquake. Sure enough, we ended up at the school’s gallery. Sure enough, me being a complete sucker, bought $675 worth of this kids art. Mind you, it was a really good traditional Buddhist painting, which he spent 7 weeks detailing with a single yak hair as a paint brush. And also, when presented the price in rupees I didn’t quite realize how much I was spending. Did the math after the deed was done. Kinda regret it, but fortunately as long as I don’t do that again it’s not going to hurt me financially. He also threw in a painting he had done of one of the mountains that was on my trek.

Then he asked me if I wanted to meet his family for tea. I said okay, with a firm resolve in my mind that I wasn’t spending any more money, I was just getting some cultural exposure. We took a crazy taxi ride across Kathmandu. I ended up paying (thankfully cheap, since he got us the Nepali cost, not the tourist cost). Turns out he lives in a slum. That’s not hyperbole. It’s a group of about 50 one room shacks with a family per shack, including extended relatives, sharing a communal water source and outhouse. Met his family, none of whom speak any English, but welcomed me into their home and shared tea with me. He then tried to pitch the idea of me maybe helping financially support an education for his siblings. I was straight up in that I can’t financially commit to anything like that. Things more or less wound down at that point, and we took another crazy taxi ride back across Kathmandu at my expense and parted ways a block from my hotel.

I did give him my cell number though, so he can text me on WhatsApp. He genuinely was a very nice kid, and he definitely has art skills. So although a very expensive experience it’s not an experience I completely regret. And it might be worth keeping in touch with him. The paintings are being shipped back to the states via DHL, since they’re too large and fragile to fly back with me. I’ll post photos of them once I have received them stateside.

Also, since I’ve been craving hotdogs, I went in search of a hotdog in Kathmandu. Found one, but it wasn’t what I was actually looking for. Mayo and cucumber are not sausage toppings my German ancestors would approve of. I guess having a dirty water dog slathered in mustard will have to wait till I’m home.

No idea what I plan to do between now and my flight out on Friday. Leaving the hotel feels like it’s just going to end up with me parting with more money that I don’t necessarily want to part with. I do wanna get some clean clothes though, so we’ll see.