Lukla to Kathmandu
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| October 24, 2006: Lukla to Kathmandu |
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| Stayed in bed until almost 8 am. Packed my stuff and had breakfast. Oatmeal porridge...hmmmmm. Our flight is now postponed. While having breakfast, we watched the planes take off land from the lodge's dining room. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Around 10:15 am we got the ok to go to the airport (2 minutes walk). Security check was a joke and then we were sitting around in the "Departure Lounge" waiting for our Yeti Airlines flight to return from Kathmandu. We finally left Lukla at 12:15 pm. It is just great when the plane races down the runway and takes off shortly before the edge of the abyss. Had some nice mountain views on the 30 minute flight. I was sitting again in the last row next to the flight attendant. Again, same procedure as with the first flight to Lukla. The girl told me I should sit next to her in the last row. Hmmm...these Nepali flight attendants sure like me as they always want me to sit next to them...or is it because I am so tall and they just want me to be comfortable? Nah...they like me! | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| The landing at the Kathmandu airport was classic. I saw the runway from afar. We flew at it at a right angle and then, almost on top rof the runway made a fast steep turn to the right and landed using only a fraction of the runway. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| After getting our bags from "Domestic Baggage Claim", Bharat and I took a cab back to the L'Annapurna Hotel. I took a long long shower and cleaned up. Bharat and I then met up again at 5 pm in Thamel. We went shopping. I bought a couple of pictures and then we bought new hiking shoes for Bharat. His old ones sucked as evidenced on his slips on Cho La, after which I told him that I would buy him some new boots. Then we went to the Pilgrim Book Store. Gosh, I loved this store!!!! I could buy many, many books in there. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| After the bookstore, we had dinner at La Dolce Vita in Thamel. I had some good pizza there. During dinner, Bharat invited me to visit his house and family. His home is about 10 minutes walking distance from the restaurant. The house was built by the family. Bharat has a nice big room on the ground level. I met his sister, his brother and his wife and his niece and nephew. I had a very pleasant time meeting his family. His brother invited me for dinner for October 30, the day we were supposed to be back from our Poon Hill trip, but I told him that I already had a dinner that night. So I had to decline as politely as possible. I really would have loved to, but then I had no way of reaching Papa before that day. Later, Bharat's brother drove me back to the hotel. I went to the room and fell asleep immediately. I woke up in the middle of the night with blood all over my mouth. That damn blister on my mouth had opened up. Drives me nuts! Otherwise I slept like a baby. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Click here for more pictures of my Back-to-Kathmandu Day | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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