Bhutan Trip Dispatch

June 2, 2008 – The Most Beautiful Flight in the World

Early yesterday we made our departure from Bhutan, the Land of the Thunder Dragon, Shangri-La. We drove from our hotel a short distance to Paros International Airport, passing rice paddies, ancient dzongs, and farmhouses along the way. Misty clouds obscured the landscape as soon as we lifted off from the Paros runway, and we knew there was no looking back. Charles had some rocks in his pack that he says he picked up in Bhutan. We have our photographs and our memories of Bhutan, and Charles had slipped some rocks into his pack. Even so, the magical land we'd lived in for nine days seemed unreal the moment our plane was in the air.

The fifty-minute flight from Bhutan to Kathmandu parallels the magnificent crest of the Himalayas. We had arrived at the airport early so that we could request window seats on the right side of the aircraft—the Himalayan side—for what promised to be a spectacular flight. We were not disappointed as we flew close to Everest and near the 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th highest peaks on the planet. I cannot imagine a more beautiful passenger flight anywhere in the world. Certainly there is not a more thrilling view for anyone who loves high mountains.

I watched Charles and Dennis glued to the their windows, awe and wonder on their faces as they looked up toward the tops of the great peaks. It felt as though the summits would always be above the aircraft no matter how high our jet flew.

Back in Kathmandu we quickly became absorbed in familiar routines. The staff at the Yak and Yeti Hotel were welcoming, as always. Temba, Charles, and Dennis went by taxi to Boudhanath Stupa for shopping and one more clockwise stroll around that center for Himalayan culture. They also walked through the alleyways behind the Stupa, retracing a route that Charles remembered so well from his visits two years ago, and again had lunch at the Hyatt Hotel.

The streets of Thamel beckoned us, and we took the short walk from the Yak and Yeti past the Palace. For just the last four days the Nepalese national flag has been flying over the Palace rather than the Royal flag, signifying the very recent change in Nepal’s structure of government.

This morning, our last in Kathmandu, we met to eat at Mike’s Breakfast, one of Kathmandu’s longstanding institutions for climbers, trekkers, and foreign residents. A month has passed since we got off the Thai Airlines flight from Bangkok to begin our trek to Everest Base Camp. Early this afternoon we will board the Thai flight to start the journey home.

Our experiences on the path to Everest Base Camp and then in Bhutan, the kingdom lost in time, have created more that just memories for each of us. Experiences such as these have a permanence known only by those who have shared the sights, sounds, and fellowship along the way.

To have climbed to the Tigers’ Nest in Bhutan and, on the same journey, to have shared laughter with Lama Geshi at 13,000 feet on the way to Everest seems unbelievable to me even now. But the faces of the people we have met in the high mountains and the spirits of those who have been traveling with us already stand as something perhaps more real than the world far below.