5:30 in the morning I was awake, dressed and went downstairs to meet the young driver who was already there unexpectedly. We drove in the darkness of Kathmandu to the domestic airport where passed the security check smoothly and stood in the line that had written “Simrik Airlines — Mountain”. It was a flight that Summit arranged for me to see the Himalayas in a small jet flight with 16 passengers that provided this tour. In the waiting line, I met an old Canadian guy in his late 70’s or 80’s. We had a small conversation most of it were jokes.
This check-in was new for me. Since we didn’t have luggage, they put us on the scale to check the weight. I saw the fat guy in the line getting worried 😀
We waited for the flight which was delayed from 6:15 to 7:15. Roy, the Canadian, and I had some coffee and he told me
-“I heard that they let you in the cockpit”.
My natural answer was “Did they know there is an Arab on board?”.
-“Won’t happen in the States!
We mounted a very old bus at the very old gate and drove towards the aircraft. On the bus, everybody who is related to the flight was on board, the pilots, the hostess, the people who were standing at the gate and the passengers which I discovered that many of them are Germans. Everything in this airport was casual and relaxed. Even the army airplanes were parked there without fences nor protection. There is a general atmosphere of trust here. While we were waiting to board, we saw that the army was doing their morning run around the airport yard. Roy shouted “Look, they finally got it that you are here” :D. Following the army, there were several groups in sports uniforms also jogging around. One group was completely dressed as Manchester United (Hello Morad :-*).
It was a small airplane. You had to bend to walk inside. We took our assigned seats and waited for the take-off. They gave us a visual guide of the mountains and their order of appearance. During the flight, the hostess would come to each passenger and show the main mountains and specially Mount Everest.
Mountain after mountain, they were covered in snow above the clouds-level. They extended to a very far distance and we were just flying parallel to them. I felt embraced by these mighty structures that stood there in pride and we were the little ones trying to get a glance. I felt peaceful.. I felt little and insignificant.
We also had the chance to go the cockpit. Where the view was breathtaking! The whole trip was magnificent. This was one of the most beautiful scenes I have seen in my life. Mount Everest was not visually extremely special. But the knowledge we know about it, that it is the highest in the world, gave it a special taste and respect. Everybody wanted to see it and everybody wanted to take a photo of it. It was just a mountain on one hand but it was the highest and most famous. I managed to grab many photos of the summit even with the head of the pilot!
We went back to Kathmandu where I had breakfast and had a couple of hours of rest that helped greatly with my cough and fitness. When I woke up, I felt healthy again and was ready to take another flight to Pokhara, the biggest city in Nepal.
It was repeating the scenario as in the morning, I drove to the airport, passed the security, they weighed me in check-in, I waited at the same gate for the same airlines bus. This time we were only 5 passengers on that small plane. With all the crew in the bus, we drove to a twin plane of that in the morning. After dropping the crew, the bus driver took us and went to another plane to pick up the fuel tank. There were moments of discussions among the staff on the ground on how to do this properly which gave us the impression that this was being improvised. A passenger looked at me in terror and said “Scary!” I felt I was in a funny place!
The flight was 25 minutes. Shorter than my shoeshine session yesterday. Again, surrounded by the beauty of the mountains. Pokhara from the top looks different from anywhere I have seen. It also had giant cliffs that overlooked dry rivers or just pieces of land. Sometimes this looked like huge cracks in the ground.
At the airport, a driver was waiting for me and we went together to the hotel. The city is much cleaner, calmer and, greener than Kathmandu. In the hotel, they gave me a room in the top floor which was my wish to enjoy a view of the lake. Alhamdulillah.. I feel thankful to be able to be here and enjoy this beauty.
I went to the city immediately.. walked in the market and headed to the lake for a few hours before the sunset. There I relaxed for hours. Reading, listening to music and people-watching.. I drank many Masala Teas and ate a not very delicious dinner and listened to a live music band. But when the night has come and darkness has descended. The lake was not identifiable anymore so I left back to the hotel to chill and prepare for the next day. Tomorrow I discover Pokhara!
