Mountain is Calling, I must go!
DAY -0
6 Oct 2022 Thursday, Brunei Darussalam to Kuala Lumpur
Today is the day that we have been waiting for since the year 2020 has come. We are going to the Everest BC Expedition in Nepal. I am so excited and at the same time feel nervous as I did not know what to expect on this expedition. Based on what we had read, people talking about altitude, extreme weather (up to -16C), snow rain and the most dangerous is Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS) - regardless of your fitness level, there is a chance to get it.
It is always a dream to hike to Everest BC and see with your own eyes the highest and majestic mountain in the world. Mount Everest at 8,848 meter height, Mount Lhotse at 8,516 meters, Mount Ama Dablam 6,812 meters and other majestic mountains around.. This is my Epic journey, a dream come true expedition.
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| Family & Friends at Brunei Departure Hall |
From Bandar Seri Begawan, we flew with Royal Brunei Airlines flight BI873 9.00 a.m. to Kuala Lumpur. Since our connecting flight is early morning on Friday, we decided to stay around Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA). We stayed at Sri Langit Hotel KLIA around 10 - 15 minutes from the airport. Room for 4 pax is around MYR 151.00.
Go where we feel more alive
DAY-1
7 October 2022 Friday, Kuala Lumpur to Kathmandu (1,400m)
Around 6.30 a.m, we arrived at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) for early check-in Malaysia Airlines flight MH170 Boeing 737-800 Business Class from Kuala Lumpur to Kathmandu. After 3 years of not flying due to Covid 19, I should take the opportunity with the good price to fly with a style. It was worth it and the ticket price was MYR 3,228.00. For future note that the economy class is MYR 2,228.00.
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| Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) |
After checking-in for the first time all hikers are meeting together face to face at Old Town Coffee. We had big chats and “bako” with each other ha ha ha. All this while, we had our own training programme separately in Brunei and Malaysia. I took the privileges to enjoy the lounge facilities for a while. Not bad having juices and coffee before take-off.
Kathmandu, here we come!
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| Tribhuvan International Airport, Kathmandu |
It takes about 4.5 hours to fly from Kuala Lumpur to Kathmandu, quite a nice and smooth flight. Onboard flight breakfast is “Nasi Lemak Sambal Udang '', it really looks yummy but yet a day before flying I was badly sick because of a stomach flu virus. I really lost my confidence as I felt that I had lost all my preparation - mentally and physically. It is really tough when you need to make a decision to either proceed or abandon this journey. After consulting with my doctor, Dr Yusri - he advised me to have a good rest before the hiking trips. I think two days is enough to recover before the hiking part took place and be gentle with your stomach. There goes my “nasi lemak”... and for the next couple of days, I just ate bit by bit at every meal, no spicy and take it easy.
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| Welcome by Index Adventure |
Finally we landed at Tribhuvan International Airport, Kathmandu, really missing this place. Last time we were here in September 2019 for Annapurna Base Camp (ABC) 4,130 meters. Nepal has a lot of things to offer in terms of natural majestic mountains with nice trekking and stunning views. Once you are here, you will miss it so much.
We stayed at the Scared Apartment near Thamel road. Quite a familiar place for us, we knew where to find nice and halal mutton biryani around the area. We also took opportunities to find some hiking equipment for final preparation for us.
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| Scared Apartment |
We had our lunch and dinner at Shafqat Halal food where they serve a good mutton biryani that costs about Npr400 for small size. (more than enough for a person). I think most Malaysians who came to Kathmandu knew this restaurant. We met a few of them having their meals here.
After dinner, we had our final briefing by Index Adventures Mr. Keshab for our journey starting from Lukla until EBC. We learned about the symptoms of Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS) and how to avoid it. We settled our balance payment for the expedition in total of USD 1,060. We were given an Index Adventure duffle bag - nice orange color and sleeping bag. Next we needed to repack our thing into the duffel bag and only 10 kg per duffel bag due to flight requirements to Lukla. We need to reprioritize everything that is important for this expedition. Really hard! Good night.
It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves
DAY-2
8 October 2022 Saturday, Kathmandu to Phaplu (2,413m)
Fly from Kathmandu to Lukla and diverted to Phaplu Airport due to bad weather
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| Ready to Hike |
I'm really excited that this morning we will fly to the most dangerous airport in the world. The airport is located at the top of the mountain at 2,860 meters above sea level and surrounded by the Himalayas. The short runaway is around 500 meters between the cliff and the mountain. Once we landed, for the next 12 days we will hike around 10 - 12 hours per day at the high altitude and extreme weather of the Himalayas. Something that my body has not ever had experience before. The highest altitude that I have experienced was 4,130 meters at Annapurna Base Camp (ABC) in September 2019. I can feel the tough challenge ahead and hope to stay positive until the end of the expedition.
We woke up as early as 3.30 a.m. to make final preparations just in case we missed something last night. Maybe we are too excited to start trekking to Everest BC. A dream come true expedition after waiting for 3 years due to Covid19 pandemic causing a delay in our programme.
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| Lukla - Delay to Weather |
By 5.30 a.m. we are heading to Tribhuvan airport for check-in to Lukla. So excited (more like to cover-up our nervousness). After check-in we were notified that the flight was delayed due to bad weather in Lukla. We waited for 5 hours until suddenly we were rushing to board the flight. As expected, most of the time the flight either delays or cancels due to weather conditions. We are at the mercy of mountain weather, we just pray for a better situation.
SITA airlines flight 601 at 10.30 am, a small double turbine aircraft green color ready to take us to the Himalayas.
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| Finally, we board to Lukla |
We were boarded but still needed to wait for another hour before we officially take-off to Lukla. After 20 minutes flying, we were informed that Lukla airport was still closed due to bad weather and the flight was diverted to Phaplu airport. From Phaplu, it only takes another 7 minutes to reach Lukla airport. Not that far though.
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| Diverted to Phaplu - Foggy |
Safely landed at Phaplu airport 2,496 meter altitude, waiting and waiting from 11.00 a.m. until 4.00 p.m. then we were informed that the weather was getting worse and we must stay in Phaplu village. It is what it is.
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| Bad weather - overnight in Phaplu |
During dinner, we started to mingle around with the locals and hikers who were also stranded here. Some of the hikers were stranded for 4 - 5 days here. We were informed that at least 2,000 hikers were stranded at Ramachep airport and unable to fly to Lukla. At the moment we knew that we needed to find solutions by tomorrow and make our next steps instead of waiting for a miracle to happen.
DAY-3
9 October 2022 Sunday, Phaplu (2,413m)
Stranded in Phaplu.
Early morning after breakfast - I had nice Tibetan Bread with fried egg and coffee. We still hope that we can fly to Lukla. We were delayed by one day and today at the end of the day, we were supposed to reach Namche Bazaar. We are still nowhere!! After breakfast we had a short meeting discussing all the options we have. We are set by 11 am, if there is no news we will start planning to go to Kharikola and set a new hiking point.
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| Tibetan Bread with Egg |
Somehow at 11.30 am we were informed by our agent that they had arranged a helicopter to take us to Lukla or Phakding or Namche Bazaar. There was great news, helps us to recover our lost time. While waiting for a helicopter to fetch us, we can see the mountain weather is changing again, this time more foggy and no visibility even in Phaplu. Looking at the situation we don't think the helicopter will make it here. Forget about Lukla! According to the locals, this weather has been like this for the past 2 weeks and we don't think it will be any better soon. The best option is to forget flying to either Lukla or another location. The mountain does not allow that.
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| Nice weather in Phaplu but Lukla still foggy |
Finally, we were stranded in Phaplu for another night. It almost swept away our motivation and it is really a bad feeling. The assigned guide put his 100% of his hope that tomorrow is a better day. We do not believe it as the weather forecast does not stipulate that way. We need to make hard decisions. We need to move from here. We need to start hiking. Waiting is softly killing our motivation.
We make hard decisions regardless of whether it is good or bad, tomorrow at 4.00 a.m. we must start moving to Kharikola. The assigned guide managed to arrange a 4 by 4 jeep to take us to Kharikola. It will take about 5-6 hours on an off-road trail. The motivation is back once we have a plan.
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| Walked around Phaplu Village |
We rested in our room, we did some prayer and Tahlil together. Hope we can be blessed in our journey ahead tomorrow. We knew that by taking the Kharikola hiking route, we will add an additional two days to reach Phakding which means that we are four days behind schedule.
We agreed that “let's focus on reaching Everest BC first then plan how to go home!”.
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