Wednesday dawned bright and early for Bishakha and me; we had a scheduled 7:00 AM flight to see Mt. Everest, which meant awake at 5:30 and out the door at 6:30 (and, to be extra helpful, Bishakha's mother actually sent someone up around 5:20 to make sure we didn't sleep in). A God-forsaken hour, to be sure, but we were more than willing. A mountain flight over the Himalayas is a standard experience for visitors to Nepal who don't have the time, money or stamina to do a mountain trek, but for locals, it's a rare experience. The tickets are hundreds of dollars, so even Bishakha had never had the opportunity. However, Sandeep's uncle was a pilot for Buddha Air (I think he's now in upper management), an airline that puts on about a dozen of these flights daily, and he got us two free tickets for my visit. Thus, Bishakha was even more excited than I was about the experience!
Of course, as all airline-related adventures are (at least mine), this was plagued by delays. For some reason, our flight didn't take off until after 8:00, which meant we had all sorts of time to hang out at the domestic terminal of the airport (one room, lots of chairs, and over-priced gift and snack shops). It seems I can't avoid arriving way too early for my flights, even when I'm in another country and at someone else's whim!!
The wait was worth it, however, once we got into the air. The plane probably held around 20 people, and everyone of course had a window seat (actually, the back row had a center seat as well as two window seats - I hope that guy got a discount on his ticket!). We were given maps of the mountain range, and as well as watching out the window, we each got to go up to the cockpit and get a panorama view, with Mt. Everest smack-dab in the middle.
I have to say, Mt. Everest was kind of disappointing - it certainly didn't look that tall! Of course, that's probably because it's surrounded by other very very very tall mountains - but I didn't mind. After all, it's not everyone who can say they've seen the tallest mountain on Earth!
The flight was only an hour, so we were back to the house well in time for a delicious, home-cooked meal. (Bishakha had asked my first day what my favorite Nepalese/Indian foods were, and the cooks were awesome about giving me everything I liked every day). Afterwards, we spent the afternoon on a quest for area rugs for Bishakha's new place. We met up with a couple of women in a predominately Buddhist area of town, with lots of Tibetan rug shops, and wandered from store to store looking for the perfect carpet. In the end, we wound up with two great rugs, one for the bedroom and another for the living room, and one very bored driver (I have to admit, I felt pretty bad for the guy - I doubt he thought this was the duty he'd be getting when he enlisted in the Royal Nepalese Army!).
Finally, for dinner, I got my naan - Bishakha sent Bhothu to a restaurant nearby that's known for its great breads, and I definitely enjoyed every bite. Afterwards, we went to a club called Jazz Upstairs, which has live jazz performances every Wednesday night. The place was jam-packed - from the diversity of patrons, I'm guessing it's listed in at least one guide book - but the jazz was awesome and everyone was friendly. We left between sets, as the waiters were setting out candles to prepare for the pending power outage, thus ending another great day in lovely Kathmandu.
*******
Shopping tally: 2 skirts, 2 dresses, jacket, 2 pairs of shoes for me; pair of shoes, Ganesh statue, 2 carpets for Bishakha
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