Look at Lukla again | Yatralogue

KIRAN PANDAY

Getting there: Kathmandu-Lukla roundtrip.
How much to take: For Nepalis Rs 3255 and for foreigners USD 109.
What to take: Sleeping bag, down jacket, thermals, lots of dry socks, chocolates and dry fruits for energy, fun companions.

If you want a really quick getaway from Kathmandu in the post monsoon season, it is to pack your bags and fly off to Lukla. Believe it or not, you can get to Khumbu from Kathmandu faster than going from Kathmandu to Nagarkot.

While fellow commuters are stuck in the traffic at the dusty Sallaghari intersection, you have already landed in Lukla and are heading off for a hearty breakfast at the North Face Resort. Few realise just how easy it is to get to Lukla, and what a different world lies out there.

The most dramatic thing about Lukla is, of course, the landing at the included runway. After your Twin Otter skips over Lamjura Pass, so incredibly close that you can see porters struggling up the stone paths, it turns sharply left up the Dudh Kosi. You can sense the pilots tensing up and concentrating on the approach. The flaps go down and the pilots line up the plane for finals. Through the cockpit windscreen the runway looks impossible: a strip of grey ribbon clinging precariously to a slope with a mountain at one end and the Dudh Kosi gorge at the other.

KUNDA DIXIT

Landing uphill, the plane decelerates so quickly that you have to hold on to your seat. There are only four parking slots at Lukla, so the plane has to turn around quickly. The pilot doesn't even shut off the right hand engine, and there are already passengers bound for Kathmandu waiting to get on as you get off.

Lukla is the staging post for the Everest Trek and although it is full of trekkers there are plenty of things you can do that are off the regular tourist track. Most people are in a hurry to get up to Namche and they hurry up to Phakding and Monjo. Actually, the Dudh Kosi Valley is one of the most scenic places in Nepal: heavily forested with pine and spruce forests, towering Kusum Kangru on the right and Kongde on the left, it is a place to stay and linger. There are some fine lodges that are not as horrendously expensive as the ones in Namche.

And instead of going to Namche, you can head off on the left bank of the Bhote Kosi and go up to Kongde and Thame. Spend the night there, and then head back to bypass Namche again to Khumjung and wind back to Gokyo along Nepal's longest glacier, the Ngozumba. If you are more adventurous you can take a shortcut up Chola Pass from Thame to Gokyo, but this is for those who can use ropes and crampons.

Tengboche is of course a must, not just because of the monastery but because of the stupendous views of Ama Dablam and Sagarmatha, Lhotse and Kangtega as well as the energy that the place possesses. By this time your money will have run out so you start heading back down to Lukla. But if not, the world is your oyster and you can go up to Pheriche, and Kala Pattar or Dingboche and Island Peak.

One word of caution, the Khumbu is the priciest trekking route in Nepal so you need to be well endowed. You may get Nepali discounts in some establishments, but don't bet on it.