| I was waked up at four o'clock in morning and took a breakfast. We were sent to the airport by 5:30 by a hotel's small van. Many luggage inspectors, policemen and government officials were already on duty. Each airline check-in counter was ready to accept passengers. The check-in lobby of the terminal was crowded with many European and American trekkers carrying big rucksacks on their backs. |
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Our guide and his female assistant who came with us from Kathmandu did everything for us, such as checking in many luggages. When we entered the departing lobby, a few of twin engined small plane with propellers are loading many luggages including big sleeping bags. People have to load them one by one with their hands. The wheel storage at the front of plane was opened and they put a few goods in its small space. I understood now why we were asked to come the airport by 5:30 although the departing time of our flight was 6:30.
At about 6:30, all planes started to take off simultaneously. Our plane was the same one which we rode from Kathomandu yesterday. Its pilot, copilot and stewardess are the same persons on our last flight. Its passengers other than us were two American ladies and a local business man.
As it was fine this morning, Mt.Machapuchhre (6,993meters) at the front and snow covered Annapuruna mountains (from 7,000 meters to over 8,000 meters) on back showed up magnificently from blue sky through thin moistures. The plane turned to north at the west end of Annapuruna mountains. It flied in a deep valley between Ma.Dhaulagiri (8,168meters) on left and Annapuruna on right. The plane was swinging right and left and go up and down due to air current in valley.
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Soon the both sides of valley became nearer and the valley became more deep. I could see a winding mountain stream on the bottom of valley where no man lived. But suddenly I found a tiny village at the curved corner of stream. I don't think the village is able to get sunshine throughout a day, possibly throughout a year. It was a big surprise to me that human can live completely secluded form the other communities.
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When the plane passed by a huge wall of Mt. Dhaulagiri, the valley became suddenly wide and thin. I found the Jomson airport for light planes along the stream. It has a single short runway. After the touch down, the plane moved to a wide ground where it was parked. It took only thirty minutes from Pokhara. |
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Many returning passengers were already ready for ride with many goods piled up beside them. Planes were arriving one by one. So the narrow exit/entrance of airport was very crowded. When I exited, I found a few small shops and hotels on both side of street. The street was paved with small rocks but it had many dens. |
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There were many people who showed apples and other fruits together with vegetables such as carrots on ground at road side and tried to sell them to passerby. As I did not expect to see many people within mountains, I was surprised to see them.
