Day 1 : Flight to Kathmandu

I welcome you to this exclusive blog which details all my experiences and encounters en route to Everest Base Camp (EBC) and Kala Pattar, features in world's top 10 treks. You can read more about EBC Trek on Wiki here, .


Satish - This is me.


Aditya - Maddy, My ex-colleague at Veveo, Bangalore. Youngest of the lot.


Kanchuki - Female Yak Lead of our team, a Macro Woman. I refer her as "K" in this blog at some places. Always loves to put on her hiking boots and walk, walk, walk... A very sweet lady with lots of chocolates always in her backpack.


Sudhir - An avid trekker with camera in hands, MR.RESTLESS (as Kanchuki puts it)


Abhishek - Calm n Composed, a cool customer.


Ramesh & Swetha - A wonder couple, wonderful as well.


Ali - Lead Organizer of our team.


Sachin - He is a MACRO man with a smile on his face.


Javed - The oldest of the lot. Very witty.


Padmaja - Everyone calls her sweetly "Paddy". One with lotta grit and determination. Good at Head Massaging.

And Now, our companions (Porters/Guides) during the trek :


Om Bahadur Ji - His original name is "Homunath Rai". He is the Guide and front anchor. We enjoyed his company thoroughly throughout the trek. His punch words, "Ya Achchha", "Wait Karna hoga", "Chalna hoga".


Kiran - Lead Tour Guide. "Not Possible" and "Yes Yes" are his punch words used on many occasions.


Porters - Mingma, Dawa, Lama, Bhupal . Real heroes of the lot. Hats off to you mates.

Day 1: 08/05/2010
This was the day when we all embarked on our dream journey to EBC, Kala Pattar. I was little anxious about my team and would I enjoy their company and all? All of us except Abhishek, assembled at the airport entrance. Abhishek was very fortunate to have the boarding pass issued just before 20 mins to the departure of the flight. We were the last to board the the flight an reached Delhi sharp @ 8:40AM. We soon reached the international terminal using the internal shuttle service and sat down in the lounge of a restaurant, just opposite to the terminal. All of us finally agreed to go to "Ambience Mall" in Gurgaon, a 15 min drive from the airport. Thanks to Abhi, who gathered the information in quick time. It was such a huge mall, which spanned for 1KM with all the branded outlets available, purchased one head band and one track for myself.

Gurgaon was like a hot boiler, mercury touched 45 mark that day. We managed to catch a cab and reached IGI by 12:15PM. Proceeded towards emigration and got my passport scanned for the first time. All of us (except Kanchuki n Aditya, they were to join later in Kathmandu) reached the boarding gate and everyone got into the bus except me. I was held back by the Kingfisher authorities as I needed to go through the security check once agan. I just wondered this might be bcoz of the Caribbean hat I sported! My gang had no clues what happened to me, they were anxiously waiting for my arrival inside the aircraft, and erupted into laughter as I entered the plane. We made a complete mess of the formalities as almost 80% of the craft was empty.

We settled into our seats and read the news that a national bandh was called off in Kathmandu the last day. We considered ourseves damn lucky and eagerly awaited the landing @ Tribhuval International Airport, Kathmandu. Amruth, a guy from "Himalayan Expedition" received us outside the airport and took us to the bus. We checked-in to the hotel "Marshyangdi" @ 4PM, allotted a spacious room with attached bathroom, fully air-conditioned. Without wasting much time, all of us marched to a place where we had to rent sleeping bags and down jackets. It was a long way to go, Amruth have taken us through the narrow streets of Kathmandu, eventually reached the place and selected down jackets of our respective sizes. We managed to find a medicine shop in the same street and bought "Piyush Water Purifying Drops" to purify stream water. Each bottle cost us 17NPR, my first transaction in Nepali currency.

We all assembled near the coffee table in the lawn and gulped few sips of tea and veg. pakoda. Today was a crazy day for some of us as we bumped into a place where one cashewnut plate cost us 2K (of course, in NPR). We settled the bill after a lengthy discussion, 1250Rs was the damange per Head. Never mind, S**t happens. Later, we moved to a serene place and tasted some delicious food.

A crazy Day 1 is Over.