Day 1: The Preparation

 We arrived in Kathmandu at 10 AM, everything according to plan. At the airport, we were delayed a bit while processing the visa. We had been told that we needed to bring a passport-size photo, but it turned out that it was no longer necessary.

Then, a middleman got us a taxi for 400 rupees (4 USD) to get to the hostel (Alobar 1000). The guy got in the car with us, which caught our attention. After a few minutes, he subtly started offering us mountain guides and other services and became somewhat pushy. We got a bit annoyed and made him get out of the vehicle halfway.

Once settled in the hostel (around 1 PM), we set out on foot towards the tourism office to obtain the "TIMS," which is the permit required to travel through national parks. (As far as I know, this is no longer necessary, and now you only need to pay the national park entrance fee directly along the way.) This permit cost us 2,000 rupees (about 20 USD at the time).

It was difficult to find a currency exchange place that offered a reasonable rate, but after a thorough search, we found one on the way to Thamel (were the hostel was).

With local currency in hand, we took a taxi to the Chabahil district to buy a ticket to Salleri for the following morning. These are 4x4 vehicles that leave at dawn every day towards the mountain villages. Our destination was the last town accessible by car on the way to Lukla—Salleri.

We made a quick stop at the hostel to leave part of our money and then headed straight to the market to buy all the necessary gear.

In approximately five hours (around 8 PM), we had purchased all our equipment (see equipment section) and returned to the hostel to pack our bags and have dinner.

I sat down to eat alone since my companions were still busy packing, and a Spanish girl joined me. She told me she was a mountain guide and had been working there for a few months. I told her about our trip plans and asked for her expert opinion on our tight itinerary.

She replied that it was absolutely doable and said, "You have Edenox for altitude sickness, right?" to which I responded, "I have no idea what the hell that is."

She then explained that it was a pill that helped prevent altitude sickness symptoms and went to her room to get me a few tablets. She recommended that, since we wouldn’t have acclimatization days, we start taking half a pill with breakfast as a preventive measure once we reached 2,500 meters in altitude.

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