Ok, it was from the seat of my plane, but it was still pretty darn exciting to see it. It doesn't look so high, until you realize that it's poking through the clouds. In fact, on the plane's video screens they showed flight statistics shortly before we saw it and we were actually flying lower than the summit! Almost six miles, straight up...
I'm in Kathmandu, Nepal. I can't believe I'm finally here. I tried to plan a trip here in 2001 but the political situation got a little messy after the crown prince gunned down 10 members of the royal family, including the king, the queen and himself.
I woke up at about 7 a.m. yesterday in Xi'an, China, knowing I had a miserable travel day ahead of me. It's now 2:44 p.m. I haven't slept since yesterday morning. and I just I am way to tired to deal with it right now. I've never been anywhere so chaotic. It's wonderful, but I'm way too tired to deal with it today!
I wasn't looking forward to an 8-hour layover in Chengdu after arriving at 11 p.m. I figured I'd check in as early as possible so I could get a good window seat, then either try to sleep a little or just read.
Chengdu is a city of about 5 million people with a decent-sized international airport. The last flight arrived around 1 a.m. And then they closed the airport. Kicked us all out and locked the doors. I had to sit out on the sidewalk with about a dozen similarly shocked tourists. I was the only Westerner. Needless to say I didn't sleep.
I figured out how to ask for a window seat on the right so I could see the Himalaya from the air. She gave me a seat on the window, on the right-hand side and -- all together now -- on the wing!
It was quite cloudy in sections but even so I managed to take quite a few pretty amazing photos. I could barely open my eyes when we left Lhasa -- yes, I actually set foot on Tibetan soil -- but as soon as I saw the wall of mountains stuck my nose against the window like a little kid!
This was the initial approach into Tibet.
The white at the bottom is clouds, and then there are clouds over the peaks as well. And the Tibetan side is the low side.
The landscape was stupendous. Glaciers, glacial lakes, and in the valleys there were little villages where it didn't look like there was enough flat land to pitch a tent. I came here to trek. Maybe I'll even use this path.
This is going to be fun.
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