“I did not climb Mt Everest…but touched it with my heart”
Nepal 2012
I was back in the airport where I had arrived only two days before, although I was feeling much wider awake this time and very excited about being there. When I landed, I was at the end of around twenty-four hours of travel. I had been collected on a September afternoon to drive to Heathrow. Two other travellers were already in the taxi and I was pleased to discover that they were going to be on exactly the same holiday as me. We caught an overnight flight to Indira Gandhi Airport in Delhi, followed by a long wait and a second flight to Kathmandu. Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoy long-haul travel and, in my mind, my holiday starts the moment I step out of my front door. I enjoy people watching at the airport, seeing the latest films during the flight, I usually quite enjoy the food and then there is the anticipation of what I am going to be doing when I arrive. But, even with a lot of napping on the planes, I was feeling pretty exhausted by the time I made it out of the airport, met the other eleven people on our trip, together with our guide and climbed onto the minibus to travel to our hotel.
The following day was packed with visiting some of Kathmandu’s most famous landmarks. Our morning was spent visiting the World Heritage Site of Pashupatinath Temple, Nepal’s most sacred Hindu shrine and then the Boudhanath Stupa, a centre for Nepal’s community of local and exiled Tibetan Buddhists.
- The Boudhanath Stupa
This was followed by a lovely lunch of mixed vegetables in Nepali spice with rice and then a walk around Durbar Square, another UNESCO World Heritage Site, which is important for both Buddhist and Hindu ceremonies. In the evening, we were taken for a traditional Nepali meal of several delicious courses accompanied by traditional dancing and some very strong alcohol.
Nevertheless, I was up at 5am the next morning for breakfast and a departure for the airport at 6am. I think that I have mentioned before that I am usually very keen to go on most of the trips which are an important part of the type of holidays I like. So – why would you come to Kathmandu and miss out on a flight around Mt Everest? I seem to remember that it was an expensive trip but, as an experience, you cannot put a price on it.
We passed quickly through the internal flights check in and I was re-assured to discover that we were travelling with Buddha Air. Surely, he would keep us safe? We were escorted to a small plane. It had just sixteen seats, each at one of the windows. It was cloudy and so we didn’t hold out a great deal of hope of seeing much but we took off and climbed through the clouds until, all of a sudden, we were emerging through them into a clear sky with a view of a range of snow-capped mountains. We flew alongside the peaks as the anticipation grew until we reached Mt Everest. From our window seats we could see the mountain from different angles but then, to everyone’s surprise, we were invited to leave our seats one by one and go to stand beside the pilot to get a better view and take a photo. We then flew back, alongside the peaks again, then across the green fields and, finally, we saw the tiny buildings of Kathmandu before everything disappeared into the clouds and we landed safely.
It was the most wonderful experience and one that still stays in my mind after all these years. Buddha Air even presented us with a certificate to prove we had actually done it!
However, no allowance was made for our early start and we were met by our bus and whisked straight off to visit the ancient city of Bhaktapur, where we spent the morning exploring the little alleyways, more temples and shrines.
- Bhaktapur
Our exciting day finished with a talk about the next stop on our tour, Tiger Tops Tharu Lodge, tucked away in the jungles of Chitwan National Park.
One Anne and Her Dog 