I'm a trekker... get me out of here!

Well, where to start, where to start. This very delayed post has been brewing for weeks and has changed focus many many times. Initially this post was to be about the immense beauty of the Sagamartha National Park and our trek to the roof of the world. We took 15 days to walk to 5550m above sea level, almost touch Everest and back. We stood at the foot of the Khumbu ice fall (base camp) where Hillary and Tenzing started their ascend to the camp 3 on the south col in 1953. We followed the route they took from the airport in Lukla through the many high villages staying in the same places they, and numerous other expeditions, stayed (including the ill-fated 1996 expeditions) while ascending to the most famous and revered mountain on earth. While we walked another subject came to the fore. That of Acute Moutain Sickness. My post was then to be about the numerous people who come on treks in high altitude without any knowledge of the dangers and set themselves very ambhitious intineraries which cause them to become ill and need to return to lower altitudes as soon as possible ( I was gonna call it Positive Mental Altitude, ha ha). We met numerous people who despite the warnings were acsending well over 500m a day and seemed to be surprised that they were vommitting and feeling so ill (it can easily kill you). This issue became at talking point daily and my surprise at the amount of people succumbing around us was huge, many never made it to the top at all.


I also wanted this post to be about the Nepalese people. A people of huge pride, who have a government which is negligent at best, yet seem to hold themselves with dignity at all times. I wanted to mention the porters who carry almost all the goods up the up the mountains (for us westerners to consume mainly), sometimes more than 70kg at a time. They are really hard people but humble too. They are the most well natured and kind of nations and make you feel welcome and at home at all times. We love Nepal and it's people and will be back one day for sure.


All of this seemed to pale into insignificance when we arrived back at the airport in Lukla. We had heard on the way down that there had been problems with flights getting out due to low cloud. When we arrived the town was in a shroud of mist and visibility was poor. We had a day and a half til our flight, so weren't too worried. We didn't even worry much when we met people who had missed their flights and had been in the town for a few days already. Everyone seemed to be waiting for a break in the weather and hopefully they would get on a flight soon. Our flight was on November 17th at 12:00. The airline we booked with was the biggest of the 3 which operate flights out of the so-called "Worlds most dangerous airport". Tara Air operate about 15-20 flights a day on a normal day. The day of our flight the weather was clear in the morning and we got to the airport early. We knew we were flight 14, this was not good as it meant we had to wait for 7 planes to come and go before we would get on ours. Or so we thought. We soon heard that Kathmandu was closed due to fog, however a few planes came in again later that morning. What became clear though was that no one in the tiny cramped departures lounge was getting on the planes which were leaving. People started to talk to eachother and it became clear that planes had left which people should have been on. Many people had tickets for flights 2 and 4 and had not been told to board any planes. The staff at the airport were not helpful at all and kept asking people to come back later. "Come back in 2 hours" became one of the joke lines of this experience and I would be happy not to hear it again for a long while. It was clear something was up. We understood that there were flights that did not happen, like ours for example. There were no more that 8 flights on the day of our flight so we knew we had had no chance of flying. However, many people should have flown but didn't.

I noticed there was a lady selling tea in the airport and went to buy a cup. She was swiping a credit card at the time. She turned to the person and said "Thats with 5% service charge so 630". It took me a few momentts to realise the tea lady was swiping the card for 630 US dollars! The lady who paid was soon on a plane, I think you get my drift about what was happening. The next few days was like something between a horror movie about being stuck in the mountains and a mafia gang film. We were told that if your flight had not arrived then you went to the back of the queue and would be allocated a flight when the "back log" had been cleared. We met people who had been waiting for 5 days already and due to the obvious corruption happening it was clear that we had no chance of flying for days, weeks even, as this was the end of the high season with many people arriving daily from the higher mountains at the end of their treks/expeditions. Everyday only 5 or 6 flights managed to arrive and leave (on one day there were none), meaning hundreds of people not getting their flights which inturn meant hundreds of people being added to the back log. The office of the airline was full with people daily getting angry and frustrated about the situation and accusing the staff of taking bribes. At one point we saw a chair flying through the office window onto the boarding area below and two Czech guys being led away by Police. I have to say by this time I knew exactly how they felt. One thing that added to the frustration and, to be honest the sheer ridiculousness of it all, were the excuses we were given about why flights were not coming or why Kathmandu was closed. There was many occasions where it was clear that planes could not land as we were often clouded in but we were also told that Maoists had been riotting at the airport and it was closed, we were told a Saudi Prince had arrived and the airport was closed for him as it was for the President. We were also hearing rumours about whole groups of trekkers paying thousands of dollars to take the seats of a whole plane, and therefore bumping off 20 people onto the "waiting list". It was a dire situation and many people, including us, were getting worried about how they could get out. It got to the point where many of the local Helicopter companies were brought in, mainly by trekking companies to ferry out their clients. The thing was, the corruption was even more rife here. We got desperate enough on a few occasions to agree to pay 600 or 700 dollars each to get out by helicopter. The choppers could fly in the cloud by following a river through the valleys and within a couple of days the flow of private choppers was pretty constant. Every time we thought we had got on a chopper we were bumped of by someone paying more. We heard rumours of people paying over 1000 dollars to get out. We met people who had lost their jobs, people who had missed their flights home. We met alot of people who had been calling their embassies demanding help but none was arriving. I tried on a few occasions but the phones never seemed to work properly, it was desperate stuff. We were stuck on a mountain and it seemed the only way to get out was to either walk the 6 day trek, which was very tough and we were exhausted, or wait and pay our way out. I should also mention that we had no clean clothes, very little money, the food was terrible everywhere and the lodges were very uncomfortable! At one point we decided to split up (no, not like that!). It seemed easier to get out if you were alone or in a group. Marianne managed to get a seat on a chopper and I waited on the other side of the fence to wave her off, the idea was she would try and organise something from Kathmandu and at least one of us was out. While she was waiting I saw a guy I used to play cricket with in Winchester (Andy from the Hyde) he was waiting with a group in the chopper area. I called him and we had one of the "blimey, fancy seeing you here" moments. He had only arrived in Lukla the day before and within minutes he was on a chopper. I noticed the Nepalese guy he was with before and called him over, this would turn out to be a tipping point as our new friend Finzu was a man in the know.

Within 10 minutes we were booked on a chopper for 750 dollars each. Mariannes other seat had never materialised and some of the people we had been hanging out with were also getting on one, things were looking up. We rushed to get our stuff and talked our way through the security in the chopper area and waited. And waited. It never happened. Finzu assured us a chopper would be here in the morning and he seemed to be our only hope. We even called him that evening to check, and to make sure he didnt forget us. We were so deflated that night I could have cried, were we ever gonna get out!?
The next day was a beautiful day, the most beautiful for almost 2 weeks and the planes started to land early. We were not even thinking about them anymore though as we had no chance and we put all our energy into getting a helicopter. Anyway, I had begun to detest the planes as the people on them were too lucky or had bought their way on, I hated them! We met finzu at 7am and he mentioned that many of the Nepalese people had complained to the authorities about what was happening and it had been on the news in Nepal. I felt better that it had at least got out that this was going on, we were not alone. Suddenly Finzu called us and said there was a military helicopter on the main landing area, it must have arrived at dawn, and there was 2 spaces on it. Our mate Terry had leant us the cash money so we ran like the wind with our packs (which at 2600m is tough!) and got to the main airport where there was the most ginormous chopper and some very cheerful looking soldiers. We were told they had come to rescue us, although it would cost 35o dollars please. You had to laugh, one guy we met was even told to pay airport tax! (about a quid). 350 USD may seem like a lot of money but to us at that time it was music to our ears. We jumped at the chance and got on the first chopper out of there and into what was the beginning of the end of a very surreal experience. We were taken to a base halfway between Lukla and Kathmandu where they had made a kind of holding area with toilets and a medical point. The army seemed to be loving it, we thought they probably didn't have much else to do! By midday we were back in Kathmandu and sipping a cold beer reading about ourselves in the paper. It was hailed in the Nepali press as a great rescue.. they forget to mention the bit about the 350 dollars though.
We will never forget this little taste of adventure and in some ways I am glad it happened. Iwon't forget soe fo the bahviour we saw thoguh. People canbe very greedy and will do anything to get out of a situation like that. greed is a nasty thing. There were many people who didn't have time like us and lost alot including their marbles, I hope they can look back on it and laugh one day. 'Cos you have to laugh.

So now we are in Hong Kong and back in civilisation. This place could not be more different, I have never seen such a place and we are loving it. It does kind of stink of money though which after our little jaunt in the hills rings a slightly different bell to me now. Next, mainland China and to the one place I have been itching to get too........