Kathmandu-Lukla-Phakding Immediately upon landing at “the most dangerous airport in the world” we are thrown into a hurried rush of baggage as fresh candy colored and clean tourists clamber off other prop planes and our own (rotors sometimes still going!). Tourists wide-eyed with excitement and trepidation, having waited days for this weather window to arrive, are quickly replaced by dirty, thin, and weatherworn bodies, less shiny but excited as well, so it seems...

 “The vast majority of international tourists expect an authentic mountain adventure experience in the region and many imagine it to be rugged, primitive and somewhat unspoiled by outside influence. Are these expectations real?” (Sanjay Nepal)