June 10th, 1999 - first day of monsoon

Now, how to tell about my arrival in KTM? Well, as we were cruising in over eastern Nepal towards the KTM Tribhuvan Airport, it was about 2 or 3 in the afternoon and the skies were perfectly clear. The number of passengers on-board had decreased significantly since our stops in Tokyo and Bangkok. On the Bangkok to Nepal leg of this journey, it seemed that there were fewer than fifty people on-board. For us first-timers, the giddy-factor kicked in and we unbuckled our lapbelts to cavort among the empty rows of seats, dashing from window to window to catch glimpses of the Himalayan kingdom at high altitude. Of course, I had unspoken hopes of spotting Everest.

As the Royal Thai Airline (ah, what style, what service!) attendants glided around, preparing things for landing, they seemed to condone our childlike scrambling to and fro. A good thing. Cuz you couldn't have hitched me to my seat for nothing. Bummer, though, that it was an airline policy (does this apply to all airlines?) that in-flight photos of Nepal could not be taken from the aircraft cabin. As a soft backdrop to the thrill and momentous swirl of our imminent landing, the flight attendants turned up the volume on the easy listening passenger cabin ambient music. "Moon River" is what was playing as we coasted onto the KTM Airport tarmac. Lump in my throat, smile on my face, that song became the perfect welcoming melody for me.

I grabbed my carry-ons and dashed down the aisle. After 15+ hours in airports and airplanes, I needed to touch ground. I was ready to meet Nepal.