Everest, India and Thailand......

We got to fly around Everest!!!!!! Yay!!!! I woke up the morning after I wrote the last blog entry to lashing rain and loads of clouds. I wasn’t too optimistic about the flight. We drove to the airport (again) and were told to wait around for a bit to see whether or not we would be able to fly or not. After ages, we boarded the plane (yeti airlines) and took off. We were flying through clouds for ages. Then all of a sudden the sky was completely clear and the only clouds we could see were the ones we were now flying over. The mountains were covered in snow (thanks to monsoon season) and looked absolutely unreal. We all had a window seat and could see everything perfectly. We even got to go into the cockpit to have a look out the pilot’s window as we flew up to Everest. It was one of the most amazing sights I have ever seen! It was so surreal to actually see it. It looks exactly as it does in pictures and on TV. I still can’t believe that I have actually seen it now! Best $160 I will ever spend!

That day we had to leave Katmandu and head towards India again. We were only there for 3 days, but it was 3 days that none of us were looking forward to. There were two good points though, we had a sleeper bus where everyone had a bed and it was Emily’s birthday on the second day. That was a bit of a celebration (for a change). We were flying from Calcutta (kolkata) to Bangkok. I had never been so glad to leave somewhere in my entire life, even if Calcutta wasn’t the worst place in India (though I do think that the hotel was one of the worst places I have ever been in my life!).

It was such a relief to arrive in Bangkok. They had actual roads and people followed the rules of the road! We were staying right beside the koh Shang road, which is the tourist part of the Bangkok. We had some amazing nights out though!!!!!! So im afraid to say that I didn’t see as much of Bangkok as I might have liked, though we did see the floating markets and the bridge over the river kwai which was pretty cool. Besides that I saw quite a few pubs and clubs.

Instead of a 12 hour drive to koh samui, I and alet decided to fly down ahead of the group and have an extra 10 h0urs at the beach. It was the best decision I have ever made! We had such a great day (some of the others had also flown down early) and we spent it laying around on the beach and eating some really good food! The next few days were like that too to be honest. Though we did have one amazing night at the black moon party on koh pang nang, an island not too far from koh samui. The black moon party is a really big party on the beach which lasts the whole night. It was so much fun though, even if I was a total zombie the next day! I think maybe my staying up all night days might be behind me now! One more day at the beach before we drove towards the Malaysian border. The following day we hit for Penang in Malaysia before a drive to Kuala Lumpur (only for 4 hours mind - which we spent in the petronas twin towers.... shopping for food in marks and spencers and eating o Briens sandwiches). We had to leave Malaysia via ferry from melaka, a really lovely town which looked a lot like Holland (according to alet who is Dutch). The ferry ride to Indonesia was awful. It was like constant turbulence on a plane for 2 hours. Of course it didn’t help that we were sailing into a massive storm. But we got here in one piece.... eventually.

So now we are in our second last country. Tomorrow morning we are crossing the equator which I am really excited about! Our first few days in Indonesia will be mostly driving unfortunately, but we will have a few days in Bali at the end which will be great!

Until next time.......................................................