Pokhara to Kathmandu

13 Oct - Flying Buddha Air to Kathmandu

A bright and early start, the early morning saw us packed and ready and 8 of us crammed into a jeep to the airport. (Not sure how many seats in the jeep, but definitely less than 8).

Gorgeous views from the hotel in the morning

Pokhara airport was organised chaos, not nearly as bad as Nepali airports are reputed to be. We could see the amazing nearly-complete new international airport next door, going to be interesting how that changes things if you can fly direct to and from Pokhara in the future. Miss out Kathmandu? Hmm, that would be a shame.

Boarding our Buddha Air flight, 9N-ANI.
Tragically the green Yeti Air plane 9N-ANC, two parks behind, is the one that crashed in Jan 2023

Our flight (8:50am to 10:00am) was in a familiar ATR plane, just like the ones Air New Zealand use on Regional. Stunning views of the mountains as we flew back over the valley we'd driven down not so many days ago.

That's the river we drove along, and that's the road to the left.
Can you see Hannah waving from the bus?

Kathmandu domestic airport was crowded and chaotic. Your plane parks up on an apron and you bus to a room with a baggage carousel and not nearly enough room for all the people waiting for luggage, trying to get out of the room with their luggage or just trying to leave because they had just carry-on bags. I made full use of my height and long arms to reach past and through the crowds to retrieve our group's duffel bags. 

We had a pretty speedy trip back into our familiar Jumpa hotel and then straight out for lunch (12:30pm) at Cafe Mitra. Yum! Such an oasis of calm in the business and chaos of Kathmandu.