Up at 5.20 to get ready catch a taxi with Johnnie and Kathrine to go and to the airport for 6.30. We fought off the touts trying to sell us things and asking for money to show us to the ticket desks. The ticket desks were very well marked as was the office to pay the airport tax but the touts seemed to think that they were providing a service and wanted to be paid. Everyone has to have a job and I don't begrudge them that but it is getting very irritating being bothered all the time. Thamel ,where we are all staying, is very busy and touts literally bother you every 2 meters trying to persuade you to visit their shop, take a ride in their taxi or cycle rickshaw or buy drugs. I don't mind them asking once but when you say "No" they then ask 2 more times. At first I started saying "No thanks" and I have no ended up either just ignoring them or just staying "NO!" (very un-English).
Our flight was delayed but we had no idea how long it would be delayed for. The mountain flights departure time is very variable based upon when the weather is good and when they can ensure that the customers will be able to see Everest. If you do not see the mountain on the flight then the companies will either give you your money back or offer you a different flight. 
Johnnie looked like death warmed up after a major session on green-moonshine yesterday. He slept in the taxi ride and then in the airport. Bless......It was a good job that we kept on going to the counter to ask when our flight would leave as it was not announced on the announcement system on the departure board.
We eventually got on the plane about 8.30. We were traveling with a large group of well off Indians.
The flight was really fantastic and well worth doing. Everyone was laughing as for the first 10 minutes Johnnie was actually fast asleep in his seat - on a scenic flight. Kathmandu looks huge from the air.It took about 10 minutes before we started to see huge mountains. We were flying at about 7000m. The company hands out a diagram of the mountain ranges so that as you fly past you can distinguish the different mountains. The plane flies out with the mountains on one side of the plane and then back with the mountains on the other side so that everyone gets a view at some point through their own window. They also did several flybys of Everest itself so that everyone got to see it several times. Throughout the flight the attendant comes up and takes each passenger in turn to the cock pit so that every one gets a chance to look out at the un-interrupted views from the pilots view.
It was a lovely sunny morning and the mountains were incredible. So majestic and huge. It really made me want to do some serious mountaineering and to get out into the wilderness.
On these photos Everest is the mountain in the middle with the cloud forming off from the top of the peak to the right. There was about 10 minutes of the flight when passengers could see the mountain from either side of the plane.
The Indians on board were being very Indian and all crowding up and sitting on each other in order to look out of the cockpit - much to the irritation of the flight attendant.The flight lasted about 1 hour. Even if I had managed to bike to Everest base camp and though these mountains I would still have been glad to see them in this alternative way. On a flight you really get an idea of the scale of them. A fab thing to do.
I saw these boxes on the way out of the airport. Awesome! Which way is up?????We went for a long brunch when we got back to Thamel and then all went off to nap.
In the afternoon I went to check out my bike. They have fitted a brand new rim fitted as the back wheel rim was all cracked (this was new in Aus)! The bike shop have done a really good job of cleaning it up. She looks fantastic now. All new and sparkly. I am really happy with it.
We all (Emma, Angela, Liam, Katherine and Johnnie) met up at 7 and after some faffing to buy some wine and organise the group we all walked together to Hot Chilli. This is the same restaurant that Johnnie and I ate in 2 nights ago.It is a great little restaurant serving Nepalese food at Nepalese prices. We ordered one of every dish that we did not recognise. It meant that we had a feast of about 12 dishes between the 5 of us. It was very much fun to try new things. Most dishes were about 75P. They had no problem with us drinking our own wine and we did order other drinks from them too.
The staff were really good again (like 2 nights ago).
I have a very silly voice at the moment as I am fighting off a cold. It is frustrating that when you stop pushing and relax you get a cold. It is forcing me not to go off doing silly amounts of exercise and instead just sit around and spend time with new buddies.
We had a lovely evening - if rather drunken. Johnnie was off the booze after yesterday's heavy session.....
No comments:
Post a Comment