I have yet to hear my alarm clock go off because Richard or Pema have been over anxious each morning to get started. They tap on our door 20 minutes early to make sure everything’s going good and just checking. So it was this morning, it felt like we just got to sleep and we heard that tap on the door at 4:15. It was Pema coming to get the extra equipment out of our room. We didn’t bother to wait out the rest of our sleeping schedule – we got up and started getting ready. We separated out the things we won’t be bringing at all (anything cotton) and put them in bags to leave at the hotel. Then we packed our big duffels as lightly as possible because they would be limited to a mere 20 kg each. Then the heave stuff would go in our days packs and in the pockets of our coats. We also separated out our passports and extra cash and I think our plan was to leave those in a safe at the hotel. The consensus is that we won’t be bringing the passports with, just that we will have a list of the passport numbers with us. We crammed into a van and set out for the domestic airport. Still completely dark just after 5 am, the streets were still teeming with busy bodies pushing carts and even running for exercise. At the airport it was not much of a surprise to see that it was also crawling with trekking tourists just like us. In this season the domestic airport is running a full schedule of flights to Pokhara and Lukla. We were trying to beat the rush by catching the first flight, but even that early it was already very busy. We checked and x-rayed our bags and stepped through the security section. Some uniformed guards stood at a table and checked all the day packs. They would open a few zippers, meticulously checking our toothbrushes. Then they would ask, “Are you carrying any pocket knives or bombs?” Assuring them I wasn’t, they waved me on in good faith. They had the security stations split into “ladies” and “gents”, so when we stepped into the secondary screening booth they would be procedurally proper. We rode a shuttle bus out to the planes and found our seat onboard. The stewardess handed out some candies and wads of cotton to put in our ears for the loud engines. After a short time we had lift-off and we were sweeping across the lowlands southeast of Kathmandu.