Karl and Kara In The Himalaya

Flew to Lukla to begin our (final....sniffle) trek to the Everest Base Camp. Exciting flight in a little-ittle plane onto a little-ittle runway on the side of a mountain. Grateful for the sight of a runway having emerged from a nervous few moments passing through cloud. To quote a Nepali pilot "you don't fly into cloud because in Nepal there are rocks in the clouds". Had arranged to spend a couple of days here before the start of the trek because the flights can be delayed due to weather. Not a whole lot to do in Lukla, a little village that basically exists to serve the airport and arriving tourists. Spent quite a lot of time watching planes come and go on the short and sloping runway, giving marks out of 10 for style and noting which airlines not to fly with. Interesting wee slope on the runway. Planespotter O'Neill, camera in hand. Much like launching chicks from the nest - you either take flight or fall off the edge of the mountain.  Also readi

Managed to tear ourselves away from Pelling and head for Darjeeling. On top of one these high forested hills is a city of 100,000 people. And lots of tea plantations. Originally part of Sikkim the British/East India Company managed to convince the Raja to lease it to them and it eventually became part of India. There's still an independence movement wanting the region recognised as Gorkhaland (as in the Gurkha regiments of the British army who were recruited here). Tea plantation. Women toiling in a tea plantation. Drove up a crazy-steep road to get here, my neck was actually sore keeping my head upright. And have settled into a week of doing nothing in preparation for the big Everest trek. High on a hill with a view of the snowy Kangchenjunga Darjeeling's a combination of colonial England (high teas, fireplaces, old houses) and India (crowds, chaos, colour). High tea at the Windermere, dahling. Guidelines for appropriate behaviour in the sitting room at t

Flew from Bhutan back to north-eastern India. Had a five hour drive up wind-y (not blowing air but with lots of corners) mountain roads to Pelling. As we were driving along, readjusting to the heat, chaos and general madness of being in India the CD selection played “I like to have a drink with Duncan.......” and then some Irish trad. Weird. Huge development happening up here, we passed four hydroelectric plants under construction and lots and lots of road construction. Apparently India likes to pour money into the area to convince the locals they want to be part of India. Sikkim was an independent kingdom from the 17 th century with a Tibetan background. It fought wars and signed treaties with its neighbours and so kept a degree of self-determination (and its royals until the 70s) despite being controlled by the East India Company, then Britain and now India. The present population is mainly of Nepalese origin. So arrived at our hotel to be greeting in a very fancy fo