I woke up bright and early at around half past 7 and got dressed ready for my last breakfast with the VCD gang. This morning was definitely a good one too - egg omelette in a brioche bun, with bananas and apple. Unfortunately (for me), Santosh and Bikram had to leave very soon afterwards to go and run an environment cleanup camp in Godawari village, with the local school children there. They were unsure if they would be back in time to see me off, so we said our goodbyes and I waved them on their way. The rest of the day was mine for the taking.
Unusually, I had left all of my packing until the last minute and I even still needed to make a flying visit to Thamel to grab a couple of last minute things! I decided to get these major activities out of the way before I could relax and wait to leave. My suitcase is considerably fatter than when it started - which is definitely the sign of a successful trip. Hopefully nothing gets broken on the way back from
Kathmandu!
Anyway, I zipped my case shut and bundled it downstairs about 15 minutes before my cab was due. I took the opportunity to say goodbye to Runika and Sem, the lovely Newari couple that own the Lighthouse - and was immediately dragged inside by Sem to be harrassed about what I was doing and where I was going. I would love to know what he does for a living, because when I knocked (in the middle of the afternoon on a wednesday) they had apparently jst finished watching 'Yeh Jawani, Hai Deewani' - the new Hindi/Bollywood film. Bikram suddenly arrived back at the house, just in time to see me off properly. Just after Runika had supplied me with a plate of what I can only describe as an entire watermelon cut into cubes, Bikram announced the arrival of the taxi. So I wolfed down the fruit as fast as I could and got up to go. Sem decided to pretend at this point that he was coming with me, and very nearly did get into the taxi! Always the joker.
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| Enjoying some champagne on my business class flight from Kathmandu! |
With watermelon up to my eyeballs, I queued up check in at Tribhuvan airport. The kind man behind the check-in desk happily informed me that I had been upgraded to BUSINESS CLASS for my the first leg of my journey. Never have I been so excited. I think the poor man was a little scared, especially when I made him promise me a window seat over and over again. Boarding made the whole experience even better, since I was able to board first for once - as I held a 'Pearl Business Class' ticket now!
For anyone who has never flown with Etihad - the planes are fantastic. Even when your seat is in economy, you still have to walk through the business and first class sections of the plane. Frankly, the Etihad business class is far more luxury than any one person could ever need, and so I dread to think how amazing 'Diamond First Class' is! The seats were like armchairs, with about an acre of legroom, and fully electronically adjustable. This was a whole new level of comfort that I am not used to on planes, and so I was having a whale of a time readjusting the seat to my hearts content. Next thing I know, the air stewardess comes over to take my order for a drink. So I ordered champagne. When in Rome, right? The in-flight meal was three courses from a full a-la-carte menu, from which I picked Arabian mezze as starter, sea bass for my main, and a cheese board for dessert. Not forgetting the key ingredient - a glass of chilled Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc. And just to top it all off, to take a nap you could just wrap up warm under a full duvet and rest your head on a large fluffy pillow. Bliss.
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| The Himalayas. This photo does not deserve to be any smaller. |
Before drinks and dinner were served, the plane was still in take-off, gradually climbing out and over the mountains surrounding the Kathmandu Valley. I knew that this flight would be my last chance to see the one thing that I had travelled to Pokhara for, two weeks earlier. As the plane flew higher, the clouds appeared to be impenetrable and I was fast beginning to lose hope - thinking that we were way to high up to see anything anyway. To be fair, the cloud formations themselves were pretty spectacular and were interesting enough to look at it in the pre-sunset light. Slowly moving past one particular clump, the clouds suddenly disappeared and before my eyes were a row of jagged, snow-capped peaks stretching across the skyline. The Himalayas. I was awestruck. Poking through the clouds were the summits of the mountains I had longed to see somehow. Annapurna, Machhapuchre, and (somewhere along the range) Everest stood tall above the clouds against a backdrop of bright and clear cerulean. The mountains were amazing. Looking at their peaks from the air was like looking at a dream, they seemed too high too even exist properly - as though they were just small lumps of rock floating in the clouds. Of all the photographs I have taken on this trip to Nepal, these are officially my favourites. Nothing really compares with seeing these majestic mountains from such an incredible viewpoint.
With the Himalayas behind us, I settled in to watch a film from the comfort of my business class armchair. Seeing the mountains has definitely been the perfect end to a wonderful trip.
Mosquito bite count: 44, 46... I'm just covered, alright?
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