December 28, 2000 - December 13, 2001 14 Days in Nepal Phakding- the first stop
The first place that we trekked to was Phakding. We left Lukla around 1pm (after our porters got ready) and headed out towards our first stop- Phakding. It was only about a three hour trek and we stopped for lunch halfway through. Phakding was relatively small, just a few places to spend the night and some eateries. The place we slept at that night had no electricity, no heat, and the bathroom was in some scary basement. This picture is looking out from Phakding, past the prayer flags, into the valley.
	Here's an interesting picture of the sun just about to break free of the mountains. It's funny because the sun doesn't rise till around 11am because the mountains block it for most of the morning. And then, it goes back down around 3pm, again because of the mountains. But even without the sun, it was still light out for the majority of the day. But nothing beat having the sun out, shining down on us during the day. It was very cold in the mornings but once that sun finally hit us, it totally warmed us up.
This picture shows a little bit of the contrast between the green pine and the white, snow-capped mountains. It's really hard to appreciate the dominance of the Himalayas through a photograph, but they are definitely impressive. As far as snow goes, there wasn't any precipitation while we were there. In fact, there were only a few times that we even saw snow on the ground. I guess that's mainly because it's so warm during the day so the only places with snow or ice are the places that the sun doesn't hit. And also the mountains must block most precipitation from ever coming through.
	Andrea made me take this picture. She wasn't going to take any pictures the whole time, but she wanted a picture of this guy carring beer. It's some guy carrying about ten cases of beer around his head. Everybody in the area carried their goods like this. They fill up the baskets and then there is a long headband-like strap that connects the basket on both sides. They put this strap around their head to support the weight of the basket. It's actually amazing the amount of weight these people could carry. And keep in mind that they do this walking up the rocky trails, usually in flip-flops or even barefoot.

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