Back to Kathmandu

Trip Start Mar 27, 2008

Trip End Apr 23, 2008

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Where I stayed

Hotel de l'Annapurna Kathmandu

Flag of Nepal Lukla, Nepal
Saturday, April 19, 2008

Early morning sees us once again sitting in the dinning room waiting news of the flights from Kathmandu. My porter returned back to Namche Bazaar yesterday so one of the others will take my bag as they are meeting passengers from the flight today. It is a fairly short walk around to the airport entrance. Again we have to go through baggage weigh in and excess luggage dues. We had none to pay , well we had eaten all the oranges and apples we carried on our flight up, so we then proceed to the departure room. ( You can't call it much more than this as there is only some seats around the endge and a circular area of seats in the middle. ( No television sceens anouncing flight arrivals etc. We all just wait hoping our airline will be first to land.

As there is nothing to do here you tend to talk to all the other passengers and find out which trips they have done. One elerly lady was sharing her sweets out ( again you do not want to carry anything brought up with you) among her Nepalese friends as well as some of the awaiting passengers. It is all a very friendly atmosphere.

Finaly the first flight arrives and lands , everyone departs the plane and then those with the first flight ticket for that airline are allowed onto the runway and once your bags have been loaded you are allowed to board the plane.

It is only after ten minutes that the plane is given the go ahead to depart . No long taxi to the runway the airfield could be fitted onto the parking area on most international airfields. It is not our plane and the Nepalese guides seem to have a bet on whose plane arrives first. We are on the second Yetti plane to land today. There only tends to be a dozen passengers on each plane plus the luggage.

A helicopter arrives with cargo and that is quickly unloaded and moved out of the way and it soon departs again. All the flights have a very quick turnaround.

Finally our plane arrives unloads the passengers and cargo ( it is amazing what fits in the nose and rear of the plane) and quickly we are to board . I am not taking photos today as I took loads last year from the runway. Very quickly we are launching ourselves down towards the end of the runway. Will we have lift off before we reach the white line marking the end of the runway. We eagerly wait to see. Take off completed we are on our final leg of our trek , back to Kathmandu, in clear skies. As we travel and I am sitting at the front of the plane behind the pilot I am intriged by a sign above his controls. Along with the usual info like weight, maximum speed and engine type it also states that this plane is not suitable for acrobaticts. ( As though we would want a demonstration of this in the mountains) . The plane seem very old fashioned in that there is no flashing control panel just dials and a display of wings to show how it is flying in relation to the ground. The pilots dress code appear to be leather flying jackets probably for warmth.

All too soon we arrive in Kathmandu and we then await our luggage train as several planes have all landed one after the other. The heat and dust hits you as we wait for our luggage. We are met once again by the representatives of Nepal Trail Blazers trekking company and I am then taken back to the L'Annapurna Hotel.

Tomorrow I am going sight seeing around the Patan area and I have a spare day before I return home so I am hoping that I will be able to visit Bhimsen and his family.

Once again on my own I go in search of an evening meal after a nice relaxing bath ( power cuts permitting).

Once fed and watered I then return to my room to repack my cargo bag as most of the trekking gear I will not use again.

There is a suggestion that the hotel is booked solid for the my last night so I may be moving to another hotel for my last night in Nepal.