Himalayan Travelogue Part 15 – Back to Kathmandu

Posted: February 22, 2011 in Himalayan Travelogue
Tags: everest, kathmandu, life, nepal, thamel, trek, trekking

The morning felt like a morning at 17,000 feet, I didn’t have much energy, I could hardly eat and then I remembered that I drank the night before. Happily our guides did a great job of getting us scheduled on a flight and actually getting it, that can be a problem in Lukla, we mounted up and got ready to do round two of Lukla. The runway slants down on takeoff and if you are overweight, or if you don’t get up enough speed you go from a flight to demolition derby with the bottom of the valley, and the valley has a tendency to win.

So once again we were often cotton and candies and the pilot stood up on the brakes and pushed the throttle to full, then jumps off and here we go. Actually it was a great takeoff; we were airborne probably 5 feet before we ran off the runway. The flight back was beautiful and sad as we were saying goodbye to the mountains. Kathmandu airport was its normal hectic self and we even someone leaving right from the airport so that added a level of nuttiness. We then went back to our original home in Nepal the Kathmandu Guest House, and since I was remiss in the first post here are a couple photos of the hotel:

Kathmandu Guest House

Statue Kathmandu Guesthouse

It was nice in some ways and not so nice in others to be back in civilization. We got in and checked in, took long showers, changed into clean clothes and then went down and had lunch. Unfortunately I had started developing a chest infection and wasn’t feeling really well, by that night I felt really bad and ended up spending most of the next several days in bed coughing my lungs out. Happily the drug store next to the hotel hooked me up with some antibiotics and got me on the road to recovery. The Kathmandu Guest House is in the Thamel area of Kathmandu, it’s an area full of hotels, restaurants and shops, I’m including some of my favorite shots form that area, I did feel well enough to do a little shopping and take a few pictures: