November 13 – Once in a Lifetime

We got up at 4:30am this morning for a once-in-a-lifetime activity.

Kalpana met us in the hotel lobby at 5:30am to give each of us the tickets we would need for our trip. Only five of us in our group opted for this excursion today but several others had already taken it before our tour began on November 4th.

Our taxi driver dropped us off at the airport. We passed through all of the routine security procedures & then proceeded to the domestic flight departure terminal.

At 6:30am we boarded a small plane for our scenic flight to Mount Everest and the Himalayan Mountain Range.

The plane was a small turboprop with about 30 seats on it. Everyone on board was guaranteed a window seat.

The plane took off just as the sun was rising over Kathmandu.

It wasn’t very long before the Himalayan Range was in sight. The plane flew along the range with the mountains on the port side so everyone on the side of the plane could see clearly. Our plane had a pressurized cabin so we were actually flying above all the mountain tops – including Mount Everest.

Everyone on board also had an opportunity to go up to the cockpit to say hello to the pilots & to see the mountains from their perspective.

After we flew past Mount Everest the plane turned around everyone on the starboard side of the plane had the chance to see the mountains.

Mount Everest is the pyramid shaped mountain top in the photo below – just off the wingtip of the plane.

This time the plane was even closer to the mountains & I was able to shoot a video of the flight past. Here is a link to the video posted on YouTube. It’s about 8 minutes long. Watch the entire video if you have the time. 🙏 🏔🙏

https://youtu.be/IxinC5PE7bo

What an amazing experience. The entire flight took about an hour & we were back at our hotel by 10:00am – just in time for a late breakfast.

We also managed to meet up with a few more members of our tour group in time to say goodbye. We were really fortunate to be on this tour with such nice people & to have an awesome group leader like Kalpana.

After breakfast we checked out of our hotel & took a taxi to the Fuji Hotel, where we would be staying for the next 4 days. We splurged & booked a nice room on the rooftop for only $80.00 / night with breakfast included.

The hotel & our room is much nicer than the last place we were at. It will give us a good opportunity to rest up & fully recover from our colds before our next tour begins on November 17th.

Cheers!