This is a first-day vlog (Everest Base Camp trek) by Nate and Kara Buchanan documenting their flight-from-Kathmandu to Lukla and the first three-hour hike to Phakding (spelled 'Podking' in the transcript). They discuss logistics (storing luggage, hiring a porter), face a delayed/windy Lukla flight, meet their guide Sunam and porter Sumit, observe local culture (yaks, prayer wheels, mani stones, stupas), arrive at a teahouse with an ensuite bathroom, and eat a traditional dal bhat. The tone is conversational, lightly humorous, and sometimes nervous about the Lukla flight.
Questions this video answers
52 minutes.
About 2900 meters.
About 2610 meters.
A little under three hours.
Sumit.
Chapters
Today's the day we leave Forever Space Camp.
But first we have to fly from Kathmandu to Lakla, which we've heard is one of the most dangerous flights in the world. It's going to be on this tiny plane, and there should be a lot of turbulence because of all the big mountains that are around and should be interesting since Kara loves turbulence so much. Mm.
I would like to be sedated until.
We get there, please.
Definitely what I'm most nervous about on this whole trek.
With that said, we could not be more excited to start our trek.
So while we're trekking, these three bags right here, the company that we're trekking with is going to store them in the hotel in Kathmandu, so they'll be there for us when we get back. And then these are the bags that we're taking with us. We both have one of these black bags that are going to be carried by a porter. So I felt really weird about the idea of hiring a porter and having somebody carry our stuff up the mountain. But the more research we did on.
Adds to the local economy here. It gives somebody a job to carry the stuff up the mountain. And we actually had a conversation with someone here that works at our hotel now that used to be a porter that said he actually misses trekking and being a porter and that he really enjoyed the job. So for all those reasons, we felt okay about hiring a porter. And we're really excited not to have to carry all the stuff in the big bag. So on a daily basis, we each have a day pack, and this is what we'll be carrying up the mountain. It just has, like, our camera gear, jackets, water, some snacks. So we really have the easy part of the job, minus the fact that our body has never been acclimated to high altitudes before. So I think our porters will be running up the mountains with these giant bags, and we'll be huffing and puffing with these tiny ones. I'm going to feel pretty bad about myself. Okay, bye. Bye. Bye.
There are no ATMs on the mountain, so we have to get all the cash that we need for the next 18 days before we get on the spot. We've already hit a slight snag. We've now tried to get cash out of two ATMs. Our plane leaves. I don't know. They told us it left at 9:30. It's already 9:35. Nobody seems to be panicking too much. Being told that we can get money in the city that we're flying to. There's one Cash machine there, so we'll see. We just made it through security at the domestic airport. We set our bags down here between some potatoes and some carrots and some other stuff that I guess is going up to Everest as well. Today we're going to be flying TAR Airways Talakla. I just talked to Sunam, our guide. He said it's going to be pretty windy today, so it should be an interesting flight.
This is our guy, Soonam. You can remember his name like Tsunami.
He's going to be taking us up to esri.
He is in charge of getting us there safely.
He's a pro. He's been almost a hundred times.
Yes. So how will the flight be today?
Yeah, flight is 52 minutes.
Yeah. So will it be bumpy?
Okay. We wanted to introduce him because you'll be seeing a lot of him the rest of the week. The rest of the three weeks. Yep. We've been told that our flight might not leave right on time. We're supposed to leave at 9:30.
We just heard that the flight before ours got cancelled due to high winds. And Tsunam just told us that it might be two or three before we get to Playo.
Today we're going to be flying into Lukla which is at about 2900 meters. And then from there we have a three hour hike to the town of Podking. And it's actually lower at 2610 meters because you want to hike high and sleep low. Thank you.
You're getting on close.
That looks like us. Well, they drove us out on the Runway to our airplane and then we got out there, some guys yelled windy wind. And now we are returning from there. Back on the bus. Trot number two. Stay together for us.
Namaste.
Namaste. Thank you. How you feeling?
This plane is so tiny. The pilot is right there.
He's right there.
I can see him.
And care. How many people are on this flight.
Do you want to sit up here, Joey?
Yeah.
13, 12, 13.
I feel like they'll.
She'S as excited as Kara is.
God falls for our ears. I feel like if I can't hear I'll be less scared.
They put the calmest person on the plane in charge of getting us out of here in case something bad happens.
Sam.
Bye. Good luck. That man right there is going to the top of Everest. So we are hiking seven days to base camp so that our body can acclimate to the altitude. And that man back there is flying to base camp in a helicopter tomorrow because he's a real man.
This is Sumit, he is our porter. He has really big muscles.
He is going to be carrying both of our gigantic bags up the mountain this week and making me feel terrible about myself the entire weekend.
We are so grateful for him.
Thank you. These are our first steps on the way to Everest Base Camp. One of very, very.
We have to get some kind of card to like go up into the hike park. I don't really know. They're doing it all for us.
We're currently passing our first yaks. What's up?
Don't get me with that horn. Okay. So what are the prayer wheels? What do they signify?
Purify your soul when you just run it out.
Okay.
Always from clockwise.
Okay.
You have to turn it one or three or five.
Okay. So always an odd amount. Yes.
This is the first of many scary swinging bridges.
Check this.
Sunam just told us that the river that we just saw runs all the way from a glacier beside Base Camp.
6600.
Yes.
And what's the name of it?
And in shortly you can do.
You can go.
Our first major incline.
Oh, good. Just warming us up.
Those are the fastest moving clouds I've ever seen. Very interested to see what a tea house is like.
Let's see our room for the night. Yeah. Thank you. Inside the bathroom. Oh, that was comfy. Yeah.
Actually the bathroom is here, so.
Oh, ensuite bathroom. Yes. Nice. And I thought we were going to be roughing it. Yeah. This is great.
Actually in your package it's just like normal one.
Yeah.
So tonight you're gonna upgrade it.
So. Thank you. We just finished our hike. It took a little under three hours. And it was like the fastest three hours of my life because I was just like looking up at the mountains and around it. Everything.
It was so beautiful. And I think it's only going to get prettier. I really enjoyed seeing all the people who just live on this mountain. Like they're all sitting outside and all their little kids are running around.
We saw our first yaks. We saw tons of porters carrying like unbelievable amounts of stuff. Yeah.
It was crazy.
We learned what Manny Stones were. We saw lots of stupas. What an awesome first day.
Yeah. It's only gonna get better now.
We're gonna get cleaned up. No, not cleaned up. We're just gonna put some warmer clothes on and then go get some dinner.
This is our first meal at a tea house. We decided to get the traditional Dalbat I think is what it's called. We learned that you take the lentil soup and you put it on the rice and then just kind of eat it all together.
Didn't like that at all.
What happened to our peanuts?
This is the bag of peanuts that we bought in Kathmandu, and it did not look like a balloon when we bought it.
We're staying here. Yeah, that was day one of the trek.
Was I yawning when you asked me? That feels great.
