Everest

Way before dawn had us excitedly out of bed as today we go to Everest. Ok, we’re not exactly climbing Everest per se, we’ve booked an Everest mountain trip. Our means of transport; a Yeti! The elusive abdominal snowman has emerged in the guise of a national airline that conducts pleasure flights to Everest.

After an hour and a half delay we eventually took to the skies in our Yeti disguise. Once we rose over the smog and grime of Kathmandu it was akin to an ascension into heaven. That is if your idea of heaven is clear skies and snow capped mountains floating on a bed of clouds. Our circuitous flight brought us close to four of the highest mountains in the world, all over a staggering 8000 meters with a few other seemingly minor peaks of 6/7000 meters!

All seventeen excited passengers had a window seat and the air stewardess Ms Yeti herself, came to each passenger individually and pointed out the peaks so that we could follow the scenery in the flight brochure provided. We’d like to say she was polite and made our experience all the better, but in fact she was curt, and you could tell that she was tired with dealing with tourists and doing the same job everyday. She briskly queued three or four people up the aisle to take their turn to visit the cockpit and all it’s stunning views. The Captain excitedly shared in our awe of our majestic mountains and the climax of our flight … Everest! We circled in closer for our return trip to Kathmandu, but not as close as we would have liked. It gave us the feel of a commercial flight rather than a sight seeing flight. We had to content ourselves with our minds eye image of the staked flags atop the peak gloriously announcing the achievements of all that have conquered this rugged mammoth. Our wonderful cockpit vantage point of Everest was brief as Ms Yeti all too soon tapped our backs, signalling the end of our piloting; but this wasn’t so bad as the views from our windows were just as incredible.

Was it worth the $140 dollars each? Maybe. The views were great, but the experience was rather chartered and we didn’t exactly feel like a soaring eagle over the mountain peaks. Why it was all stunningly amazing, perhaps I’d save the splurge for a true Everest lover. That said, we’re still glad we did it. What a great wedding present.