Our flight from New Delhi to Kathmandu departed on time and within about 35 minutes or so, we could already see the Himalayan Mountain range poking through the clouds off in the distance. What an incredible site. Of course, as we drew closer, they seemed so much larger.
I began taking photos out of the window, thinking they couldn’t get better than this. We watched the video screens and noticed that we had only a few minutes before landing in Kathmandu…and then, we started circling around. At first, we thought that the pilot wanted to give those on the other side of the plane a chance to see the mountain peaks in the distance, until he did a complete circle…and then another, and finally he announced that weather was forcing us into a holding pattern. We had to wait to see if it would clear enough to land.
After the third or fourth loop around, we were ready to just land and get on to the adventure. Finally, we began to descend. As we broke through the low fog, the view of the now-harvested rice fields in the terraced hills just outside Kathmandu was beautiful. Apparently, it is so much more lush-looking in growing season, but the monsoons have long-passed and as such, it wouldn’t be a good time to grow anything. Irrigation systems just don’t exist like we see in farmer’s fields at home.
Either way, it was the perfect welcome to Nepal – mountains higher than any other in the world and the sculpted fields that hug the foothills. We were embarking on an exciting adventure.
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