Thursday 26 March 2008 Phakding, Nepal

26 March 2008 Thursday

Up today at about 4am unable to sleep and needing to pack for the trek. Easily done by 6 my departure time to the airport for the 7:30 flight to Lukla. My watch must have been off by 15 min or I never set it that accurately, because I thought I was coming down for the taxi at 6 and it was 15 after. I was a little afraid I might miss the flight but there was no traffic and I was there in 30 minutes. I checked in and went to the waiting room. The flights were not announced in English so every time a flight was announced I had to watch the color of the boarding passes the passengers were carrying but they never had my color. About every fourth flight I’d go and ask one of the guards but he’d look at my ticket and just motion me not yet. My flight was finally called at 8:30! Glad I rushed here.

The flight had a few bumpy moments and a bit of time spent in zero visibility, but was otherwise uneventful. Naturally, we were offered cotton for our ears, and pieces of hard candy as a snack by the stewardess, everybody took both. My baggage was in the check area at the end of the flight and there were many eager youngsters to help me get to the lodge where I had always found a guide/porter, and in fact as I arrived there an employee of Peak Promotion said he had received Wong Chu’s call and had found me a porter. I was introduced to Kami Sherpa the proposed candidate for the spot. He was pretty tiny, about 5’1” and 120 lbs I imagine, but eager, and, as it turns out the brother of Nwang Sherpa my guide in the year 1999! He looked sober and cheerful so I agreed to 800rps per day and he pays for his own food.
After finishing that business I sat for some breakfast. There was an Indian looking fellow who had been sitting through my arranging for the guide/porter and we finally introduced ourselves. He said he was from New York, and I responded I had lived there 18 years and had gone to NYU. He said he lived on Bleeker Street, I was taken aback, what a weird place to live, I assumed it must be far west on the street because near NYU it was very commercial and honky tonk, no serious people live there. He said he lived at the intersection of Bleeker and La Guardia. I was shocked, then he added he was a professor at NYU and lived in the faculty housing there. I confirmed, “You mean the buildings with the Picasso sculpture out front?” Yes, those. I was doubly shocked and totally impressed, knowing the general intellectual profile for a student at NYU(which was way over my head, even though I was a student there once), I imagined he must be some kind of genius or near genius to be on the faculty. And it wasn’t just any old faculty, it was the Stern Business School, one of the highest ranked in the country.
His guide came in and they left but I said I’d see him again that night at Phakding the resting spot for the first day of trekking.

Kami and I were the last to leave Lukla and the first to arrive at that evening’s lodge. At first I wondered if I would be exhausted by my big photo bag and it felt too heavy as I slung it on my back for the first time in earnest, but everything clicked perfectly and I walked strong and without fatigue. The distance is rated for a 3.5 hour walk but we arrived in 2.5 hrs, no problem.
Later, I had another chat with the NYU professor, Anindya Ghose, and I explained the nature of my photographic project and he told me about his work. His specialty is internet marketing.

That night I met several interesting people from many countries we’d criss-cross paths with over the next week or so.