Back to Kathmandu

If you haven't guessed which airline we flew from Chitwan to Kathmandu, you're way behind. Buddha Air, of course. It's actually the only Nepalese airline foreigners begrudgingly trust. Yeti Air is surprisingly not on the list, and neither is (Royal) Nepal Airlines, which has all of four 70's-era jets to its name.

It's a 20min flight to Kathmandu, but, of course, we had to get there two hours early. On top of that, it was SLIGHTLY cloudy, and our guide was pretty convinced there wouldn't be any flights. They didn't fly any yesterday, and we were thinking it's cloudier today. This brings us to the joy of internal Nepal flights: they don't really have air traffic control, and there's not much in the way of radar. So, mist, darkness, and rain all quickly cancel flights. I was personally really hoping for a flight, because it's a 5hr drive (yeah, it takes 5hrs to get 50-60miles as the crow flies when there are mountains). Luckily, we made it out of the forest and back to civilization. (Fun tidbit: the flight was actually on time, which our van driver didn't even consider possible, so he was late picking us up.)

Cremation platforms

Close-up

We headed out from the airport to see the last sight of the trip: the holy place where the Nepalese burn their dead. The whole area is full of stupas and temples and holy men, but the main point is the platforms built next to the river where bodies are burned. Anyone can use them, and bodies are burned non-stop. I found it unsettling to see mourning families watching a loved one burn. Many tourists seemed to treat it like any other famous sight, but it was all I could do to snap a couple pictures (just to satisfy you blog-readers, of course) before retreating. I didn't really think I'd like random people from Nepal crashing my funeral, so I tried to stay out sight. That being said, they really didn't seem to mind.