Monday, May 02, 2005

Third Time's A Charm!

Up at 5:00, knocked on Wayne's door to wake him up. Lyla's light was on, so she was up.

Cabbie was waiting for us, we left for Sarangkot at 5:15, and got to the viewpoint at 5:45. Tons of tourists, mostly Korean and/or Japanese and Indian and/or Nepalese, brought up on busses. All the Indian/Nepalese tourists wanted to take pictures with the other foreign tourists. There were a few clouds around the peaks when we got there, and we watched as the sun slowly lit up the peaks. When the sun finally broke the horizon, all the Japanese/Korean and Indian/Nepalese cheered loudly. Oh brother! As the sun rose, the clouds around the peaks burned off, and we got some good views of the peaks. Third time's a charm!

Lyla stayed up there, and Wayne and I took the taxi back down about 7:00. Wayne had a bus to catch, and I climbed back into bed.

Got up about 10:00 and showered, kinda, the water was barely warm. They use solar panels to provide electricity for much of the lodge (saves money), and the water is pretty cool until the sun starts shining good during the day. Then headed for breakfast.

After breakfast, I stopped at Sunrise Paragliding and everything was a go for the flight today. Third time's a charm again! Went back to the hotel and booked a bus back to Kathmandu for tomorrow morning at 7:30.

Headed to Sunrise at 12:45, Lyla came with me, she was going to video tape me.

We drove up Sarangkot to the take off point, and my tandem guide strapped me into my harness, then give me some instructions on what's going to be happening and what I should be doing, during take-off, while in flight, and during landing. He told me once we're airborne, I'd have a seat to sit on, he said I'll be very comfortable, it's like sitting in an armchair. Then he strapped himself to me, and before I knew it, we had a good wind, and we were flying!!! It was a bizarre experience to just get lifted off the ground like we did. I pushed down on my harness, which flipped my seat under my bum, and wow...it was just like an armchair. I couldn't have been more comfortable. It was nice. I thought I'd have the harness squeezing my crotch the whole time, but it wasn't like that at all.

And up we went! After a few minutes, I looked over to where we took off from, we were already higher than our take-off point. We continued doing big circles in our thermal we had, and we continued to rise and rise and rise. Before long, we were higher than the highest point of Sarangkot, about 1500 metres. And up we went, more and more and more. The clouds got closer and closer, and the people on the ground got smaller and smaller, like ants, the buildings diminished in size as we ascended. What an absolutely beautiful feeling it was, to be flying like a bird. It was the most amazing experience I've ever had. Then I started feeling queazy, I tried to ignore it, but it got worse as we rose higher and higher, towards the clouds. I turned to Raj (my tandem pilot) to ask him what one would do if they were going to be sick, and just as I started to talk, I vomitted. I turned my head to the left and down, realizing that if I didn't do that, it would just come right back into mine (and Raj's) face. And I vomitted, and I vomitted some more, all my breakfast raining down back towards earth. I think I vomitted 4 or 5 times. I vomitted all over my left arm of my new jacket. But, I did manage to miss Raj, which he was quite happy about. But, then I felt fine. I joked that I hoped that it wouldn't land on some poor Nepali farmer working in his rice fields or tending to his water buffaloes. Raj laughed. And still we climbed higher, we were getting close to the clouds now!!!!!

Raj didn't wear a jacket (just in his t-shirt), and he was COLD, shivering by this time, but up we went, into the clouds! WOW!! He had an altimeter on him, we had reached an altitude of about 3500 metres. Once into the clouds, we started gliding, ever so slowly back down, to warmer air for Raj. We glided down and down and down and down. The ants became people again. We drifted down further and further, back into the valley's of the Sarangkot hill.

There was another person doing a solo paragliding flight also, and he had already landed near the lake, and as we were getting close, he pointed out the other guys parasail, and said we would be landing there, so we drifted down to earth, and we landed ever so smoothly in an empty rice paddy beside the lake. Unfortunately, the truck thought we were going to be landing at a different location, so Lyla didn't get our landing. The other guy paragliding was just a beginner, only doing it for 4 or 5 months so far, so he didn't go up too high...and he's scared of the clouds at this point too.

I asked Raj if he ever got himself into a thundercloud, and he said yes, once, in India, and it was the most terrifying experience he'd ever had. He climbed into the storm cloud, and there was lighting and thunder all around him and he couldn't get out. He was shitting himself, he said, he thought for sure he was going to die. I think he said he spent 1.5 hours trying to get out of the storm cloud, but he finally did. That happened when he was just a beginner, his teacher told him not to go there, but he thought he knew better. He learned his lesson.

We were up in the air for about an hour. It was a stupendous experience...if you've ever wanted to fly like an eagle...this is it!

We headed back to the town, and I went back to my room and laid down...to rest my sicky stomach. Then headed out to the courtyard, and watched part of the video Lyla made...she did an excellent job. After a while, Lyla joined me, and we headed to a restaurant for dessert, I had a chocolate brownie with ice cream, she had a apple crumble with ice cream, and we played Scrabble.

We went back to the hotel for a bit, I hit the internet and packed my stuff, then Lyla and me met up again, and went back to the restaurant for a couple of drinks and played some more Scrabble. Ya, I know, we're both nerds, playing Scrabble in Nepal.

We headed back to the hotel about 10:30, and went to bed.

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