Back in Kathmandu/ Ep. 1.

                I’ve been back in Kathmandu (and reunited with the internet) for a couple of days now but I feel like I’m still getting my feet back under me and it doesn’t help that I’ve had a nasty stomach bug for the last 24 hours.  When I lie down or lean to the side I can actually feel the liquid in my bowels flowing around in the tubes.  Amala is doting over me so much though that it feels like home. 

                To try and write about the trip would be ridiculous.  There’s too much to talk about so I’ll write about little episodes whenever I get some time.  Episodic stories are always cooler anyway.

PART 1 OF THE DAVID’S ADVENTURES IN MUSTANG: GETTING THERE

                The trek was scheduled to start from Jomsom but getting there means a 20 minute plane flight from Pokhara.   Pokhara is around 3,000 feet and Jomsom is just over 9,000 feet in elevation.   The Jomsom airport is the most dangerous in the world and to get there you have to fly through the deepest mountain gorge in the world – between Nilgiri and Dhaulagiri, the smallest of which is over 23,000 feet tall.  The dinky 15 seater planes which fly the route get grounded if it’s cloudy and don’t fly after noon because the wind blasting through the gap is too intense.  Sounds awesome.

                Unfortunately the day our flights were scheduled to leave was really cloudy.  We arrived before 6am and waited for the weather to clear.  At one point a wheel fell off of a plane on the tarmac and there was a mad scramble to fix it.  That gave us something to watch. 

                The clouds didn’t really clear up much, but at 10:30 they let a plane go and six of us piled on.  It was not a smooth ride.  We didn’t know at the time but the regular cruising altitude for the flight is 12,000 feet and we were up around 19,000 struggling to stay clear of the clouds (and mostly failing).  Because of the clouds we didn’t get many spectacular vistas but when the fog would clear enough to see a peek it felt close enough to touch.  I took the photo below during one of the longer cloud breaks.

                Needless to say we arrived safely but were the only flight the authorities let go that day.  None left the next day either and the remaining 11 students ended up spending 2 days on public busses fighting their way up the gorge on a dirt road (if you can call it a road) which more often broken than functional.  They have some pretty crazy stories but I’ll take an awesome 20 minute flight and 2 free days of day hikes from Jomsom any day.