Hey guys,
I think the best way to capture Nepal the way we did is to load a whole bunch of pictures with some comments below each one. Before doing that I will let you know where we took it from me being unable to breathe up in the mountains. We packed our bags and started to head down the mountain SLOWLY for two reasons, one the snow had turned to ice making it extremely slippery, two because I was not really with it so Jimmy had to constantly watch out for me and make sure I was not about to going flying off the cliff. We trekked our way all the way back Lukla over a two day period and booked our flight for the "warmer" climate of Kathmandu (seriously Kathmandu felt like a tropical island after being in the mountains - you know it's cold when the toilet water is frozen...). We woke up early the following morning, eager to get on our 7:30 flight back to civilisation.
For those of you who dont know anything about Lukla airport, let me give you some insight. Lukla sits at 2840meters, in otherwords it is a town on a mountain top, Lukla airport is at the edge of the mountain, the landing strip is a cool 460 meters long (and sits at a 12% gradient - some extra info from the pilot). It is the most dangerous airport in the world to fly in or out of due to the fact that when landing, if the pilot is too low the plane crashes in to the face of a mountain, if he is too fast he crashes into the coffee shop at the end of the runway strip, when taking off from Lukla if he does not have enough speed and height you crash into yet another mountain face. Now I am not one who is usually afraid of flying, I have had my fair share of small aircrafts with some minor problems along the way, electrical failure springs to mind. But now, it was not Jimmy flying the plane and this time there were some serious obstacles in our way should the pilot not be on his A game that day. Our first attempt at leaving Lukla was unsuccessful, the clouds rolled in so the plane was sent back to Kathmandu. We hobbled our way back to our tea house, which is conveniently situated on the far side of the runway and ordered some tea to defrost.
We thought we were going to be hanging around a while, 20 minutes later the owner of the guest house said "guys you better run, your plane is about to land and they dont wait for passengers". We sprinted as fast as we could leaving four lungs behind us, I have never in my life had to run so fast and so far without breathing, we were rushed through "security" and boarded the plane all in a matter of 10 minutes and before I could even get my seat belt done up, we were taking off - no time to reconsider taking off from this daunting airport. All was good, the take off was great and the views spectacular until I noticed two rather aged hands gripping my chair... I turned back just in time to notice an 80+ local vomiting into her barf bag which is the size of a small chip packet, this wonderful experience continued for the duration of the flight, for 30 minutes I had to sit practically on the pilots lap as she wretched into her barf bag over my seat - charming to say the least. Jimmy was most entertained!
Back in Kathmandu we had our first shower in 7 days - no hot water up in the mountains and when you looking at minus temperatures keeping clean just does not seem so important anymore.... Here is a result of keeping your hair tied up for a week through extreme climate conditions.
We spent 3 days in Lukla eating "normal" food and organising our trip to Thailand which is where we are now. Updates on Thailand to follow...
I think the best way to capture Nepal the way we did is to load a whole bunch of pictures with some comments below each one. Before doing that I will let you know where we took it from me being unable to breathe up in the mountains. We packed our bags and started to head down the mountain SLOWLY for two reasons, one the snow had turned to ice making it extremely slippery, two because I was not really with it so Jimmy had to constantly watch out for me and make sure I was not about to going flying off the cliff. We trekked our way all the way back Lukla over a two day period and booked our flight for the "warmer" climate of Kathmandu (seriously Kathmandu felt like a tropical island after being in the mountains - you know it's cold when the toilet water is frozen...). We woke up early the following morning, eager to get on our 7:30 flight back to civilisation.
For those of you who dont know anything about Lukla airport, let me give you some insight. Lukla sits at 2840meters, in otherwords it is a town on a mountain top, Lukla airport is at the edge of the mountain, the landing strip is a cool 460 meters long (and sits at a 12% gradient - some extra info from the pilot). It is the most dangerous airport in the world to fly in or out of due to the fact that when landing, if the pilot is too low the plane crashes in to the face of a mountain, if he is too fast he crashes into the coffee shop at the end of the runway strip, when taking off from Lukla if he does not have enough speed and height you crash into yet another mountain face. Now I am not one who is usually afraid of flying, I have had my fair share of small aircrafts with some minor problems along the way, electrical failure springs to mind. But now, it was not Jimmy flying the plane and this time there were some serious obstacles in our way should the pilot not be on his A game that day. Our first attempt at leaving Lukla was unsuccessful, the clouds rolled in so the plane was sent back to Kathmandu. We hobbled our way back to our tea house, which is conveniently situated on the far side of the runway and ordered some tea to defrost.
We thought we were going to be hanging around a while, 20 minutes later the owner of the guest house said "guys you better run, your plane is about to land and they dont wait for passengers". We sprinted as fast as we could leaving four lungs behind us, I have never in my life had to run so fast and so far without breathing, we were rushed through "security" and boarded the plane all in a matter of 10 minutes and before I could even get my seat belt done up, we were taking off - no time to reconsider taking off from this daunting airport. All was good, the take off was great and the views spectacular until I noticed two rather aged hands gripping my chair... I turned back just in time to notice an 80+ local vomiting into her barf bag which is the size of a small chip packet, this wonderful experience continued for the duration of the flight, for 30 minutes I had to sit practically on the pilots lap as she wretched into her barf bag over my seat - charming to say the least. Jimmy was most entertained!
Back in Kathmandu we had our first shower in 7 days - no hot water up in the mountains and when you looking at minus temperatures keeping clean just does not seem so important anymore.... Here is a result of keeping your hair tied up for a week through extreme climate conditions.
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| Who needs hairbands? |
We spent 3 days in Lukla eating "normal" food and organising our trip to Thailand which is where we are now. Updates on Thailand to follow...
