Things get messy in Lukla

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I suppose twas ever thus and I shouldn't really be surprised, or should you about the following events.

You'll get a pretty good picture if I tell you that this morning on the way to catch the plane, Sange our guide uttered these words. 'My friends and me agree that you are very good dancer'. At these ominous words, gentle reader, your heart may sink. Mine certainly did.

Basically we got to Lukla, huge rejoicing and found a really nice lodge. Ten dollars for a room with a double bed and ensuite shower. Couldn't believe our luck. After lunch Si and I and Phil decided to go to the pub for a beer. We found the most amazing pub. Itr looked EXACTLY like a pub inside. Pool table, small dance floor, proper bar etc. It was even playing Pink Floyd! I thought I'd gone to heaven. It proceeded to play Nirvana, Hendrix, fantastic tune after tune. We chatted in a glow of virtuousity about the trek and our achievements. Our cup bubbled over with satisfaction at our heroic deeds. We forgot what beer does to you at altitude and how rubbish and full of chemicals Everest Beer is. We went back to the lodge for dinner (can't remember much about it) and then came back again with the Scots and our guide and some porters.

Si played pool all night. Then he started playing for money (although we only found that out a few days later). I entertained the Nepalese contingent at the other end of the bar and danced like a loony to ROCK MUSIC. Danced so hard in fact that I twisted my ankle and having been limping ever since. Well it did get better and then something even worse happened. (You'll find out in my next).

The bar shut at some point, a whole gang of highly amused guides and porters escorted us back to our room where we awoke the next morning, fully dressed, unwell, dodgy of ankle and Si with no money.

Very sad to say goodbye to Gopal and Yaddub, our porters. Si said he might have cried if he hadn't been so hungover. Just the excitement of a very small overloaded plane desperately trying to get off the ground on the world's shortest runway, providing the sort of setting that really makes you question what the hell you are doing with your life and then Kathmandu......

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