Incontinent on the Subcontinent: MOUNT EVEREST & SWAYAMBHUNATH

We woke early again for our second attempt at the Mountain Flight, to see Mount Everest. The clearer weather was apparent as soon as we stepped outside the hotel to our waiting taxi, there was no fog compared to the day before and it was much cooler (maybe 5 degrees) signifying a clearer night. I'm guessing the rain and storms of the day before cleared away all the weather for us.

We arrived at the domestic airport and once again went through the process of getting our boarding passes, paying the departure tax (which I figured was just a money making venture, when you consider we were on a scenic flight and not actually departing!) and once again being felt up and clearing security. Andrew headed straight for the tea guy, and grabbed us some steaming hot milk tea. It really is a beautiful drink, tinged with cinnamon and made steaming hot, to the point of being unable to hold the little plastic cup at times. With many more flights obviously leaving, compared to yesterday we began to get really excited about getting up in the air and seeing the majestic Himalayas. There are many companies who offer the Mountain flights, however we were booked on Agni Airlines, with their counterparts being Buddha Air, Tara Air and Yeti Airlines to name a few. I had to chuckle at the names. Yeti was my favourite! They eventually called out flight and as with many things in Nepal, men and women are separated through the departure gate and for some reason the female security guard wouldn't let me through and claimed my flight was not boarding. She went to check and never returned! What seemed like a long time passed (it may have been more like 3 minutes) another woman came along and told me to go through the gate quickly as I had nearly missed the bus to take us to the plane! Andrew was already on the bus, and was looking a little worried as I was the only one not there yet. Phew. We drove across the tarmac to where all the little fixed wing aircraft for the scenic flights were waiting and boarded our Jetstream 41 (yes I am a nerd who notices these kinds of things!) and realised we were not sitting together. This wasn’t a big deal because the aircraft was configured with 1 seat, the aisle and two window seats. I happened to have the single seat beside a window and Andrew ended up having 2 seats to himself, so no sharing of a window either. Awesome.

The plane took off and we were soon flying above Kathmandu and were able to get a look at the size of the valley. Kathmandu is approximately 1337m above sea level, so it's hard to comprehend a valley that sits higher in altitude than the summit of Mount Wellington in Hobart. Not long after takeoff did we see our first glimpses of the beautiful snow covered mountains. The side of the aircraft I was on, got the first views as we travelled parallel to the mountain range. I could not believe my eyes - the view was just magnificent. It didn't take long for us to start seeing some of the bigger peaks such as Gauri Shanker (7134m), Melungtse (7181m), Cho Oyu (8201m) and then the big one; Mount Everest, or Sagaramatha as they call it in Nepal at the whopping height of 8848m. To see it with my own eyes in person, and not on a high definition documentary on Foxtel was truly magnificent. The summit was graced with a little tiny puff of cloud, like a little hat to adorn its gigantic head. Lhotse was right beside it, at 8516m too. We all had a turn going up to the cockpit of the plane to see an amazing view of the mountains, including Everest. I think I even had little tears spring to my eyes when I was up there seeing the absolute ceiling of the planet Earth. It's really hard to put into words to adequately describe the amazing peaks of Nepal, but I honestly wished I was blessed with better fitness (and the ability to deal with Acute Mountain Sickness) to perhaps one day stand on a mountain peak in Nepal and marvel at the world around me.

The plane turned around and Andrew's side of the plane was blessed with an even better, closer view of the range and peaks, although in getting closer we were also subject to some pretty rough turbulence. You certainly feel it more in a smaller aircraft than you do a larger one. This plane accommodated approximately 20 people, so it was more in the smaller category, than the bigger jets!

All too quickly, our flight was over and we were coming back in to land at Kathmandu, and we were presented with cute little certificates to say we had experienced a scenic flight to Mount Everest. For the cost of $160USD each, it was certainly well worth it and definitely a highlight to date of being in Kathmandu.

We left the airport and headed back to our hotel as we were both a little hungry and figured we might have something to eat.

After a quick breakfast we decided to head to Swayambhunath (or Monkey Temple). Visiting this Buddhist temple is one of the definitive experiences of Kathmandu. The temple sits above the city on a lofty hilltop and is mobbed by monkeys. Interestingly the temple is a blend of Buddhist and Hindu iconography. The compound is centred around a massive white stupa topped by a golden spire that is very well photographed, showing the all seeing eyes of the Buddha. Images of these eyes are seen everywhere around Kathmandu. The temple is jammed with ancient carvings and the smell of incense fills the air. Upon arriving you walk up a LOT and I mean A LOT of stairs that become almost seemingly vertical in their ascent. It was pretty tough going, but well worth the effort! By now I was starting to feel a little weak and wondered if I was just a little unfit after being naughty and gaining some weight of late. We took in all the sights, including spinning the prayer wheels set into the base of the stupa before heading back down the stairs and grabbing a taxi and heading back to the hotel as I was really starting to feel unwell.

We visited our friends at the travel agency across from the hotel to let them know the Mountain flight that they had arranged for us, went well and we loved it before I knew I really needed to go and rest. By this time it was about 1pm and I figured I'd been up early for the last week (never asleep past 5am each morning) and I was probably getting pretty exhausted. I lay down and fell asleep and woke up 3 hours later! Poor Andrew had been sitting in the room with me (albeit playing games on the iPad to amuse himself) to make sure I was okay. I woke up feeling terrible and really unwell in the tummy. Those bloody fried momos! I had eaten the majority of them, but Andrew had had a couple too but he was fine! How unfair - I figure he had killed off the germs with beer. I couldn't believe how unwell I was feeling, and on a holiday! I was expecting to get Delhi belly, in Delhi! Not Kathmandu!

So here I am, 24 hours later still recovering in bed, feeling really weak and hopefully over the worst of it. It has not been pleasant, but I am grateful that I arranged for us to come to Kathmandu a few days before our tour started, and that I got sick now and not whilst we were on a tour with a group of people that I would have slowed down with being unwell. Let's hope that whatever I have will only give me some more immunity for the rest of the trip! I'm really hoping it's not Giardiasis, although I'm showing quite a few of the symptoms. If it is, it's probably not from the food, and rather from bad water I've come into contact with, even if I do only drink and brush my teeth with bottled water. Fingers crossed for a speedy recovery!

I am struggling to get access to update the blog as much as I would like, due to the power shedding that is a daily occurrence here in Kathmandu, but I will try my best to keep it updated as we travel across Nepal and into India in the next two and a half weeks. Whilst we haven't found Kathmandu much of a tourist destination (cities are rarely the best a country has to offer, anywhere in the world) we are both looking forward to leaving the city and seeing what the country side has to offer. Our tour starts on Saturday, and we have two days here in Kathmandu as part of it before we head off to Chitwan National Park, and a bit of one-horned rhino spotting from the top of an elephant. We cannot wait!