Indian S'porean climbs Everest- Dr Kumaran Rasappan scales Mount Everest
Right... so his craziness had led him to be the 1st Singaporean Indian and 1st Singaporean doctor to reach the summit of Everest. While we were in Khumbu, little did we expect how excited Singapore would be excited about this. I was just glad to see him safe with all body parts intact after weeks of waiting for him to reach the summit of Everest.
Our schedule was very tight from then on. While people usually take 2 days to return from summit to base camp, Kumaran had to do it in a day (together with the sherpas) and the following day he was at Phortse. Once he returned to Phortse on 27th May, we had one night of rest and planning. The next day we had to head off for our crazy walk to the airport (which is usually done in 2 days at least, but we had to do it in a day, on order to catch our flight on the morning of 29th May). For me, this walk would take about 11-12hrs, uphill and downhill!
The journey to the airport was an adventure that deserves an entry of its own. Firstly we had difficulties finding a porter, as most of the men were still out on expedition. Finally Lhakpa found us one and told us he couldn't speak much English. We had to detour to the Kunde hospital to drop off our extra medications, before heading to the airport. Oh... yes.. we have to walk to the airport! There are no taxi, buses or animals to bring us to the airport! Its all by foot!
Usually, despite the heavy load, porters are usually fast and tough. However, we reached Kunde hospital only to find that or porter was missing. We spent about 3-4 hours looking for him in Kunde and Namche. Eventually he was found soaking in the atmosphere at the open air concert in Namche. This 4 hour delay meant that we would not be able to reach Lukla (where the airport was). Hence we decided to walk to the village of Phakding and spend the night there. Following which, we would have to set off at 4am the next morning to reach the airport to catch our 8am flight. The walk to Phakding was exhausting. We were walking till 11pm (which is illegal btw as trekkers are not allowed to walk after sunset). During the walk, I thought back on how I would just flag a taxi to get to the airport in Singapore. The simple things in life that makes a great difference... and which we take for granted!
Hence on the morning of 29th May, we set off to the airport, only to find that our flights were cancelled because of the bad winds!! What luck!!!! But he had to reach Kathmandu as we were setting off to Gorkha the next day. Hence we had to get the helicopter out of Lukla to Kathmandu. What an adventure! Those 2 days felt like 2 weeks!!!
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