Day 14 (31 Oct, Sat) PhakDing to Lukla- 2800m

We continued to trek to our destination - Lukla, where we would board the plane back to Kathmandu

Typical Teahouse

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Flower

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Typical Menu

The price looked more reasonable now (E/R 1USD = 70 NRps, 1 SGD = 50 NRps)

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Dal Bhat Set

(Typical Nepali Meal)

Apparently, a Nepali can eat Dal Bhat everyday for every meals!!!

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PY was really happy to get her seaweed.

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We met a group of Japanese tourist and they had a SPREAD of Japanese foods (brought from a restaurant in Kathmandu). After 13 days of same-old-boring food, we had craving for Jap food. So PY spoke  in Japanese to them, who were delighted and offered the Seaweed to her. =)

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Group Photo

End of 13 days Trek

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YEah!!!

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My room with view of airport runway

Inevitably it was abit noisy, but how often can I sleep with such a view?

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Lukla Airport

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Taking off...

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Missing Person

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While I was walking on the street of Lukla, a Nepali asked if I speak Chinese, then he pointed me to another Nepali-looking person who spoke Mandarin to me. He (Stone) was actually a Chinese from Shenzhen, and he was looking for his missing friend (Pano - see above). Previously, when I saw the missing person notice, I was quite curious to know the story behind it.

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Pano quitted his job and decided to go for a long holiday back in Oct'08. He left Shenzhen and went to Yunnan Province in China, where he traveled overland into Tibet. After Tibet, Pano came to Nepal to do EBC trek in Feb'09, which was winter & extremely cold. I could imagine that the whole region to be covered with thick blanket of snow. Pano was very adventureous (may be trying to save money), as he trekked without the help of Guide or Porter. The last record of him was his entry into Namche Bazaar where every foreigner needs to register with the local park authority. Anyway, there was no record of his exit...

Stone had lotsa hypothesis on Pano's disappearance - lost his way, met an accident, injured himself,  robbery etc...

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More than 9 months had passed, hence, the hope of finding Pano is slim.

May be the intention was to recover some of his items and put the whole episode to a close.

Online Update provided by Stone: http://www.doyouhike.net/forum/globe/south_asia//346270,0,0,26.html

What's the price of being adventureous?

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We spent our last night in the Himalaya at a local Pub dancing to Nepali Music.

**Will upload the photo when I got it from my travelmates.