Photos of our Fabulous Adventure
4:30am, time to get up and down to the lobby for our 5:00am departure to the airport. Today we board Buddha Air’s Mountain flight for Everest. The domestic airport terminal is abuzz with sightseers and trekkers all drawn towards magnetic Sagarmartha or as we know it, Mt. Everest!
Our 6:15am flight leaves promptly on Nepali time – around 6:30am. As the skies are clear and no wind, flights to Lukla and the Everest region are plentiful. Approximately 30 of us board our flight, each with a window seat. We wait on the taxiway for incoming aircraft and then we are off. Once above the city of Kathmandu it is a beautiful clear morning.
Shortly after take off, we are given a pamphlet showing the various peaks that we will see. A lovely young flight attendant comes by to point out which peaks we are seeing. As we near Mt. Everest, they start a steady stream for passengers up to the flight deck for a ‘pilot view’ of Mt. Everest. What a bonus, the highlight of the trip. ‘I did not climb Mt Everest…but touched it with my heart ❤️’
All too quickly we turn around and head back to Kathmandu and Bikesh is there waiting for us to return to the hotel. We are starving and b-line for breakfast. At 10am, we have a ‘tour’ 😄 to the Himalayan Bank to change $$ to Rupees. This takes the better part of 1.5 hours!
Whew, mission accomplished and we separate to enjoy our free day. Some head to the Garden of Dreams, others for pashmina shopping, Val, Cathy, Lois & I are on a mission to find hiking shoes for Cathy and maybe an item or two for the rest of us. The Mountain Hardwear & Kala Pattar shops relieve us of the most money, and we head back towards to hotel with great smiles.
Cathy, Lois & I have a cool drink after a busy morning of shopping and I then headed back to the hotel to meet up with Tammy & Shane for a drink in the gorgeous courtyard. Lois & Cathy decide to experience a rickshaw ride, and that they did! Two hours later, Lois sits next to me visibly vibrating and exclaims “well we made it back”. They had quite the thrilling ride, through pre-festival traffic, all the way to Durbur Marg and back.
Next to appear are Pam & Roger who had an equally exciting afternoon. They venture over to the Garden of Dreams and spend a zen couple of hours there, and then meandered the frenetic streets and ended up in a local market, Anan Market. Apparently it was quite the experience and in Pam’s words ‘we should have done the market first and then the relaxing garden’
Inset Roger’s story here.
We arrange to meet at 7pm for dinner and walk the short 20 steps to the New Orleans Cafe for dinner. The food was very good, the music a wee bit loud and disco’ish’ in a Nepali way, but the conversation was lively and animated. A great evening. Deciding to call it a night and return to the hotel, Roger comments “should we take a rickshaw all the way back to the hotel”. Amidst laughter we left the restaurant and called it a night.
Lois & I did a quick walk down the block and a wander through the supermarket across the street. We refer to it as the Coca Cola store as that is the most prominent sign in the top of the building. Heh works for the group!