From Kathmandu, we took a one-hour flight on a small Beechcraft to see the legendary Mount
Everest! We flew this and two other times with Buddha Air. Can you
imagine such a thing in the USA? How about Jesus Christ Airlines? As someone we met pointed out, just
think about the ad possibilities!
The plane
Inside, all window seats
To
get back to the subject... The flight left about 07:00 (we had
breakfast afterwards), so we could get to the mountains before the
clouds came in. And the mountains were there! We were once again
astounded at their height. It's like taking the Alps and stretching the
Z-axis so that that everything is almost twice as high: Mont Blanc is
4810m high; Everest is 8850m!
The incredible Himalayas
First view of Everest, from the cockpit
Everest is in the
back on the left
And then, there was Mount Everest, the only mountain whose peak
reached into the clouds. You can understand how the Hindus see
mountains as sacred, linking the earth to the heavens. It was a real
thrill for us.
Mount Everest!
Years
ago, when we heard that an Austrian friend had been to Nepal, it seemed
like a dream, something we would never do, especially since we were
thinking mainly in terms of mountain climbing. But we saw it! Veni, vidi. No, no vici.
On the flight back, with the sun now up, there were lovely views of the green, terraced fields of Nepal.
