Everest Base Camp trek January2019, day two : Kathmandu1400m to Lukla2886m to Benkar2630m

January 21th 2019, i woke up earlier 5AM, Ganesh came to pick me at the hotel, we headed to the airport, there we had breakfast, 30 minutes waiting then we boarded into the plane, fortunately no delays. Lukla is around 25 minutes from Kathmandu, i will say about the flight that it was very noisy maybe for those who will fly for the first time they will may find it a little scary, but the pilots were pro so the trip was smooth and we landed peacefully at Lukla airport one of the most dangerous airport of the world. In Lukla 2886m we met with our porter Bim then we started immediately our trek to Phadking 2640m where we were supposed to stay at the night but Ganesh judged that it was more convenient for us to continue to Benkar 2630m since i did not show any sign of altitude sickness till then , i think the fact that i climbed mount Kilimanjaro 5880m in 2016 was an advantage for me. nature was breathtaking, the view the feeling the smell of mother earth were simply magnificent. We trek around 6 hours, good safe trek till Benkar , we found a very cosy and beautiful tea house managed with a nice couple with their cute little girl. We met Zinzin an intrepid trekker a young lady from South America, “well Zinzin you are a special case” 🙂 🙂 , she told us that few does ago while trekking with her friend , she managed to find an abandoned hut in the middle of nowhere , she told her friend ok we will spend the night here !!!, her friend told her: well zinzin, i told you you should brought your medication with you, let me noticed to you that the hut is wide open , no windows no door….. we are in the Himalayas, i think that by night all our ovaries and uterus would be quiet frozen, what do you think sweetheart? Zinzin told us, she could not understand that reaction from her friend !!!! the i look to Ganesh and told him maybe we should secure our doors tonight 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 , at the end Zinzin’s friend returned to Lukla ( i do not think that she was still there when zinzin returned to the village) meanwhile Zinzin spent the night at the abandoned hut ALONE and she told us proudly with a happy smiley face pulse 77 that in the middle of the night she verified the thermometer it was -35 degrees Celsius 🙂 We laughed very very loud all together. After begging her (me, Ganesh ,Bim and the managers of the tea house and their little kid) to promise to us not to do such thing again, she said we may be right and what she did was crazy and dangerous. Then i went to my frozen room and felt asleep.
Three interesting questions
1)How much money do i have to change before to start the 14 days trek to Everest Base camp ?
Answer (updated in January 2019 from what you are going to see in YouTube): minimum 500 dollars if you will not drink alcohol during the trek, more if you will, however i advice you not to do so, enjoy the trip live the moment the now with your entire feelings, let alcohol for celebrating the end of your trek, extreme cold and alcohol are very bad combination and will harm you.
Why minimum 500 dollars? for example the price of the water varies between one dollar in Kathmandu to 3 dollars or more in Lobuche. Batteries charging price varies between 3 dollars all day in Namche Bazaar to 3 dollars an hour in Lobuche . This is normal because after Lukla , transportation of the food and material is very expensive for Tea houses to procure. The money can easily be changed in many currency exchange places in Thamel, take your time to find the interesting offer.
2) What about packing list ? i brought everything i needed with me, i did not buy any further gear from Kathmandu
3) ATM , credit card ? No, i had cash 🙂

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