Nepal Trip Day 0 - Departing Los Angeles (Friday December 21, 2018)

Nepal Trip Day 0 - Departing Los Angeles (Friday December 21, 2018)

Woke up before 4:00 am. Checked the weather at Namche again. The cold continues to worry me.
I searched up a bunch of blog posts again on people doing EBC Trek during this time (which I have done millions of times before) to provide myself some level of comfort. Most people said it is cold at night but daytime is ok. This I already know. Still, the thought of all of us hiking up or down Namche hill (a 2000 feet ascent) in falling snow/shower worries me.

Have I made the right decision? - is it completely insane for me to take my family to the Everest/Khumbu region of Nepal in December?  They are being such good sports!

Weather forecast at Namche Bazar

Finally, Jo and I got up around 6:00 am today to get back to the task at hand. Jo helped me fold the underwear in tiny packs and we finally evenly loaded the two very colorful duffles with food, raincoats and other emergency items (Micropur MP1!)

Folding under wears into 1 gallon zip lock bags

Our North Face duffles bags ready to go

Jo was able to manage a last minute orthodontist visit this morning to check out GG’s mouth sore and MM’s gum. MM was experiencing some pain in her gum and GG was having a sore. After the quick check out all was good and we packed some more.

One quick visit to the Orthodontist

Did more last minute errand at Costco (Jo’s) extra pair of contacts, Di-Cheng-Hang for Nescafé instant 3 in 1 coffee, and Target returns. Off to Mo Mo Paradise in City of Industry next for one last big meal in town with

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Subsequent posts were written more than three weeks later due to the fact that I did not take my laptop to the trip. I weighed in I whether I should take my laptop to edit my video and update my blogpost. I know that I did not want carry the laptop with me in my backpack during the trek due to the unnecessary extra weight nor did I want the laptop to be carried by the porters in the duffle bag (laptop can potentially be damaged due to handling). I had figured out a way to edit the blogpost using my phone but I was simply too tired every day during the trip to concentrate on my electronic duties.

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Jo's mother before we take off (or to kick off the holiday).

MoMo Paradise 

Steaming pot

After the big lunch, we went home and went for a short walk in the neighborhood to burn off some calories. We closed up our luggages - we carried two large (95Liter) Northface duffle bags, four carry on luggages (45 Liter each), and our day packs (kids - 25 Liter, adults - 40 Liter). If you add up the total capacity of our luggages and day packs, our total carry capacity is 190 Liters which equates to the volume of 190 Nelgene wide mouth water bottles.  

After lunch walk

Packed duffle bags

Carry on suitcases packed

Day packs packed

Our airport pick up (Kevin) was supposed to come pick us up at 5:30 pm for our 10:20 pm departure out of LAX, but Kevin did not get until about 6:15 due to heavy traffic in and out of LAX. We finally set off for our two week trip at 6:30 pm. 

Luggages loaded in transport

The traffic around LAX was probably the worst out of the entire year that evening. Kevin had to maneuver around LAX and we finally entered from the arrival level for our departing flight. 

Heavy traffic on the 105 to LAX

Entering into LAX from Sepulveda

We were flying China Southern Airline. It was our first time flying China Southern. From LAX, China Southern provided one of the quickest routes to Kathmandu. We were able to get to Kathmandu from LAX with one layover in Guangzhou China around 24 hours. Other airlines all had longer lay overs which would make the total fly time longer. 

We elected to fly business class this time due to the long flying time to Guangzhou (15 hours and 20 minutes). Flying business made a huge difference for us on this trip. We were able to actually sleep (lay flat) and subsequently better acclimatize for our trek. 

We found the business/first class check in counter for China Southern. We were politely asked by a male ground agent how can they help us. He was probably thinking that we were lost economy class passengers who accidentally wandered to the business class counter (we were wearing Northface jackets and REI day packs).  

China Southern Check in counter

We checked our two duffle bags in and got our boarding passes. We were disappointed when we found out that our newly obtained Global Entry was not honored by China Southern Airline. We still had to go through the regular security line after all. By the time we got through security and made it to the business class lounge, we had about one hour before our boarding time.

The China Southern lounge shares the lounge with Korea Air. The location was nice. It is located one level above the main boarding level. You can get a good view of the crowd and the duty free shops. 

View from the lounge

We took a selfie with our tired eyes at the balcony. It was about 8:20 pm and our boarding time was around 9:20. 

Selfie at the belcony

Despite the nice and quiet location of the lounge, the amenity at the lounge was sub-par in my opinion. The tables where we put our food on were extremely small as if designed to not let anyone put more than a small plate of food on. There was fried rice, pizza, cold sandwiches, and instant noodles. There were also brownie bites but we were certain that they were from Costco. 

Getting some food at the lounge

Fruits and vegetables

Fried rice

Pizza and sandwich

Fried rice

Shin Noodle Soup

Enjoying the instant noodle

Electronic time

We finally got to our gate and proceeded to the business class line for boarding. Again we were politely stopped and asked how they can help us. After we showed our business class boarding pass, we finally were getting on the plane. One other reason that the China Southern LAX-CAN-KTM route was interesting to us was the planes that China Southern used. We were able to fly the largest passenger plane in the world - the Airbus A380. We took pictures at the boarding bridge. We were excited that we were finally on our way. It was about 9:30 pm. The kids were excited that we will be on the upper deck of the double decker plane. At this point, I could sense that our vacation spirit was slowly rising and our routine life was slowly fading away from us. 

Boarding the A380

The A380

A380

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