Kathmandu, Nepal
Trip Start
Dec 08, 2007
1
128
133
Trip End
Aug 14, 2008
Kathmandu,
Nepal
Friday, August 1, 2008
The following morning we were up at 5:30am to go to the airport to catch our flight around the Himalaya - one of Paul's birthday presents. After a little delay we took off with a window seat each and headed for the Himalaya, flying up through the clouds before seeing the huge expanse of mountains appear in the sky.
9 of the 14 peaks in the world that are over 8000m are in Nepal. We saw three of them as well as several massive glaciers before we came to Everest or Sagamatha, which was hiding a bit behind the other mountains - it is 8848 m high
1 - The Himalaya range
. We each got to go into the cockpit as we approached Everest for a panaramic view. Then we turned around and came back with them all on the other side, but we were much closer this time. The views were breathtaking and it looked so peaceful up there - the roof of the world! The flight was over in an hour, although it only felt like about five minutes! In the afternoon we moved hotels for another birthday treat, to the lovely five star Crown Plaza, about 30 minutes outside Kathmandu, set in lovely grounds with a pool and casino. That night we headed to the casino to win some money back, but after being plied with complimentary drinks and food all night, the chips started to dwindle. We cashed in what we had left at 2am and stumbled back to the room.
The day after was a little slow as we were feeling rough, so we asked for a late check-out then reluctantly went back to Thamel in the city centre. Paul punished himself by watching more England cricket- when will he learn!
