Tell us all about it, Ralf

Welcome back, Ralf.

Tell us all about your trip! I see that you had some fun with the local cuisine. Tell us about the rest. What else did you do and see?
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Hi Amy,

After a few days in Kathmandu, I had a two-week hike from Lukla, a small village in Nepal’s Khumbu region, to Everest Base camp and climbed Kala Patthar. Having said that, the whole issue was quite overshadowed by the plane crash that happened just days after I took this yeti airline twin-propeller plane.

Hi Ralf

Wow! The view is spectacular. It must have been an incredible adventure.
I checked out the Google Images pictures of the Lukla Airport. I liked this one:
earthboundexp.com/media/imag … /lukla.jpg
OMG! Weren’t your palms sweating a bit when you landed (even though it was before the crash)? Did you also leave from that same airport? I bet take-off was interesting too. It looks like you fly right off a gigantic cliff. :shock:
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I honestly thought I was gonna die. It’s easy to second-guess and say it could have been me, but it could have! It was probably the same plane, pilot and stewardess that crashed just a few days after I flew on that thing. And yes, when you’re flying through the clouds and there are mountains closing in on you and out of a sudden there’s a very short landing strip on a 700 meter drop-off slope, your hands do get a bit wet and you wonder whether your pants will stay dry 8)

Here’s a pretty breathtaking clip I found on youtube that nicely encapsulates how you feel on that flight.

Really, Ralf, your short clip of Kala Patthar looks enormously impressing. I envy you that adventure.

As for your feeling while landing in Lukla don´t worry. I once experienced something similar while my first flight. The destination was the airport of Pula/Kroatia. Sinking in a cloud of mist the plane came closer and closer to the surface of the Mediteranean Sea and with the look out of the windows there wasn´t any solid ground to discover. Shortly before the wheels touched the ground suddenly land appeared in the small window. Believe me, I had similar feelings. :shock: :slight_smile:

Well, I survived (thanks god)