Nov 26-Part 1 The Fast Way Back to Kathmandu

One final breakfast at the Hotel Yala. Packing up all of our stuff. It was finally time to leave Kyangen. We had been there for 5 days (if we had stayed any longer, I would have needed to put in a “Change of Address”…even though they don’t get much mail in Kyangen). The majority of the villagers knew who we were. Everyday, people like the baker would come out to say good morning. “Rock Man” would start his multiple trips of moving huge rocks from a pile on one side of the village to someplace on the other side of the village. 

Rock man

We brought all our bags out. We were all ready to go, but then found out the helicopter was coming from Lukla to Kathmandu then to Kyangen. We took some photos, then sat areound. 

Bhola and I. The boss of the hotel gave us the white scarves for luck. 

Madam, Jenny John, Heather, me, Jeff, Makaela, Bhola, Sean, and Madam Junior (Pal-mo…she was leaning into my legs)

Lhakpa the baker and me. 

Eventually it was time to move up to the heli-pad on the other side of the village. The hotel people and some of the villagers carried our bags. Madam Junior even carried my yellow bag. She seemed very happy to help. 

I would have been concerned except that the day before yesterday I saw her carry a huge bag of yak dung down the hillside. My little bag was nothing to her. 

Off she goes. 

It seemed like the whole village turned out to see us off. We were taking Lhakpa’s wife, Neima, with us. A few other villagers asked Jeff if there was any more room on the helicopter. They make up all kinds of reasons as to why they need to go to Kathmandu. Neima’s reason was that she needed to go to the eye doctor. In reality, she was going to her sister’s wedding. She was the lucky one, because we had no more room after her, even though we only had 4 of us in the first helicopter (the helicopter had to make two trips…4 of us in the first one with most of the bags, and five in the second with what bags didn’t fit).

Our group, and the villagers, waiting…

Helicopters never travel empty. This one had a full load of goods for the village. 

Sean, Bhola, Neima, and I were in the first heli. We were lucky because only 3 of us had to sit in the back. I had a window seat, Sean sat up front, Bhola was next to me, and Neima was on the other side. 

We flew back down Langtang Valley. It was cool to see the villages we had gone through, and the trail. 

Langtang village. Our hotel is the building sort of close to the center of the photo. 

We had hiked down there. 

Mountains

Villages down below. Lots of terraced land. 



Sean as co-pilot. 

Me and Bhola

Roads winding

Kathmandu 

We landed at the heli-port part of the airport. It had taken us 25 minutes to fly back to Kathmandu. Once we off-loaded, we had to show our passports, then loaded into a van with all our bags (although, neither of my bags were on the first trip), and drove over to the domestic terminal. There we had to run the bags through security. We loaded them onto two trolleys, and went over to wait for the others. 

I should have been writing this blog post, but instead I just watched all the people coming and going. 

After about an hour and a half, everyone else arrived with the rest of the bags. We loaded into another van, and drove back to the same hotel we had stayed at before. Makaela and I are up on the 4th floor this time (but we have to go to the 5th floor, then go down some stairs to the 4th floor to get to our room). 

Stay tuned for Part 2, where we go on a adventure to the Monkey Temple…