Kathmandu and trekking in Nepal

After a great happy hour and meal with new found friends from Melbourne, I slept like a baby for 8 hours and woke to a magnificent morning.  OK, this was well worth the arduous uphill trek.  Just before sunrise and a brisk +5C/40F.

As the sun rises, some the mountains take on an ever changing look.

One of the most beautiful breakfast settings anywhere.

And off we go this time downhill.

First stop, the Old Gurung Museum.

And a local temple.

Downhill is indeed faster, but uses a whole new set of muscles.  Wow.

Our porter Sumich and another porter trying the hand at making music from shells.

The power of the monsoons, which destroyed this steel bridge last summer.

Back at our lodge from two nights ago, we stopped for lunch.  I took a nap while Jr. went fishing.  Alas, nothing.

After lunch, on the road again.  This time mostly uphill to our lodge for the night. 

OK, this is seriously not fun any more.

Finally, we arrived at Gurung Lodge, a beautiful lodge where we were the only guests tonight.

Time for an Everest before happy hour and dinner.

After another great happy hour, dinner and good night's sleep, another amazing sunrise in the Himalayas.

Time to head out for a baby 90 minute last trek with more wonderful secenery along the way.

And the drive back to Pokhara.

And finally to Lakeside Pokhara for lunch.

The hour long "Mountain flight" is one of the absolute highlights of any trip to Nepal.  To take advantage of the clear morning skies, most flights leaves between 6:30P and 7:30A.   We were picked up the Shangri-La at 5:45A for the 25 minute drive to the KTM domestic terminal.

Our antique bus to the remote stands.

PDM, pre departure mint.

The Boudha stupa from the air.

The Beech 1900 is the perfect airplane for the sightseeing tour, 1-1 seating so everyone has a view.   The flight flies parallel to the Himalayas giving pax on the left side a view on the outbound.  It then turns around so the pax on the right side get the view on the return.   Midway on the return, the captain makes a complete circle so everyone gets one last full view.

Our personable FA pointing out the major mountains along our route.

And then encouraging everyone to come forward to visit the cockpit and take in the incredible view.   Mt. Everest, the pyramid on the left.

And the spectacular scenery.

And spectacular scenery on the other side of the plane.

I've been to a lot of carppy airports around the world but KTM takes the cake for worst passenger experience anywhere.  Start with an old, way too small facilty for the current passenger volume, add in a healthy dose of sheer bureaucratic inefficiency indeed stupidity and we have a winner.   Forty minutes just to get into the terminal as a long line waits for a joke they call security here.  Priority line or access?  LOL.  Dream on. 

The Etihad counter was reasonably efficient as there was only one other person ahead of is the Business Class line.  Next up passport control.  Only a 10 minute wait.  Then another 45 minutes for security round 2.   No metal detectors here just a full pat down for everyone.  The worst part was Air Dubai and Air India agents kept pulling their pax out of line and sending them to the front of the line, pissing other off to the point that we all started yelling at and berating the agents for just using our line to the jump the queue.  Then there is the gate area or rather bus gate area.  Utter chaos.

We finally escaped and were bused to our plane and a return to peace and calm.

Another great EY flight.  Outstanding crew and wonderful service.

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And our favorite people pic of the day.   Fashion style, Abu Dhabi version.