We spent our last night in Lukla with a big celebration! Passang Sherpa, the elderly innkeeper of the lodge near the Lukla airport, spent some time chatting with us over dinner and then brought out drinks on the house to toast to our successful climb. Not just any beer – he brought out pitchers of Chang, a local brew in this part of the Himalayas (think lambanog!) for our small party of trekkers, porters and guides.
Thankfully, the serious drinking spree the night before did not stop us from waking up early the next day. Simply because, early morning in Lukla sounded like a scene straight out of a World War 2 film with the buzz of all these tiny otter planes flying in and out of the Tenzing-Hillary Airport. This airport sure was buzzing with activities!
We took our breakfast of pancake and noodle soup while chatting with trekkers who just arrived in Lukla, then bid good-bye to the people we met – both locals and foreigners – as we made our way to the airport for the usual check-in procedure. As a parting gift, we gave a goodie bag of used gloves, scarf, wool sacks and shoes to our porters. We figured we would not be using those winter gears as much and it would be more useful for them living in the freezing Himalayas. They, of course, gratefully accepted. We will never forget these kind people who accompanied us throughout the trek!
The rest of Day 12 in the Himalayas was basically spent waiting in the Tenzing-Hillary airport. The general mood was chaotic but at least we have Ang Dawa Rai to sort out everything for us – from luggage check-in to securing our boarding pass. We witnessed at least 5 successful take-offs and landings in the short elevated runway and would always be amazed at how those pilots managed to take-off in this extremely short runway at a high altitude as Lukla.
Ang Dawa Rai would give us updates every now and then on our flight status – airport in Kathmandu is crowded and our plane could not take off just yet, a plane that successfully took off from Kathmandu had to turn around becuase of low visibility, no planes can take off from Lukla because of the cloudy weather. By the time we were about to board our plane, we were even told to disembark again hence –
Frankly speaking, we didn’t mind the wait. It’s just amusing how the passengers (us) were left right on the tarmac while the pilots wait for clearance to take off. At least, they are concerned about safety! We’ve seen enough take off and landing on this airport to conclude that it is not an easy feat. One small miscalculation might be fatal such as this crash incidence in Lukla airport –
If you don’t see the video, click here!
This plane crash landing in Lukla happened a few years back. They said the pilot must have thought they already reached the tip of the runway but missed it a couple of meters because it was too damn foggy. A local said there was only one survivor on that flight – the co-pilot – who was able to eject himself from his seat right before the crash and landed on the runway. So, we really did not mind the delay. When we did take off eventually after a few hours, I heard the pilot say (because I was seated so close to the cockpit!) that we had to fly 15,000 feet instead of the usual 10,000 feet just to get a clearer visibility.
It was a turbulent ride, I was really scared for our lives and prayed that this tin can of a plane would bring us safely back to Kathmandu. And thankfully God heard our prayers! After 1 hour and 5 minutes (instead of 35 minutes) of dizzying plane ride, we were being picked up by Harkaraj Pariyar in the Tribuvhan Airport. We arrived in Kathmandu in one piece! It was certainly an exciting way to cap off our Himalayan adventure 
