14/14--Day 12--Last Morning at KTM and Return to Chennai--02/10/2022

Now quite rested and refreshed, Rathika and I went for an early morning walk around Thamel on 2nd October. We saw hordes of young people, many of them drunk or stoned or both, leaving the numerous pubs and discotheques that dot the area. We wandered around the bustling market, already crowded owing to the Dasain shopping, had tea at a roadside shop that sold pooris in dangerous shades of magenta and yellow, bargained for tee shirts at a shop, eventually picked up four of them, and admired the architecture of the buildings and temples around, though sadly, many of them were dilapidated.

We came back to Bistro Markham, the restaurant at the Potala Guest House for a delicious breakfast of toast with butter and jam, pooris and potato subzi and-- for the first time in 13 days-- curd. After settling our accounts, all of us packed up and headed for the Tribhuvan International Airport. We took care to wear the EBC Trek Tee shirts that we had got made in Kathmandu.  As the Air India flight took off for Delhi, we saw snow-capped peaks rising above the clouds. The tallest of those peaks showing above the clouds, could that be Everest? Of course, I wouldn't know, but would like to think it was. 

Seated next to me on the flight was a young mother who was travelling with her husband, a doctor serving in the Indian Army, and two small children, one of them a baby. Seeing our EBC Tee shirts, she asked me a lot of questions on what the trek entailed and how one went about preparing for it. She said that she loved to travel but in her current situation with two small children, her options were limited. I wish she someday gets to experience the grandeur of the Upper Himalayas. 

We landed in Delhi in the evening and our connecting flight to Chennai landed at 1130 PM. As always happens to me with late night flights into Chennai, my baggage didn't come up till around 1230. Shalini, Jeeva and Jayashree were kind enough to wait for us and we all departed for home around 1230 AM. 

And thus ends the flashback of the saga of a once-in-a-lifetime experience! If you do have any questions for me on any section of this trek, feel free to ask in the comments section of the relevant posts. You can alternately contact me on ramkishores@hotmail.com .