Our untimely death in an airplane

Well, we have some interesting news to report. We are now in Lukla, Nepal. How we managed to get here is beyond me, since most of my intestines are sitting either on a mountain near Everest or on the runway in Lukla. Let's start with Kathmandu. We were supposed to leave yesterday, but there were too many clouds in Lukla (which is about a 25 minute flight), so we spent an extra night in Kathmandu. That allowed me to go shopping at a wonderful bazaar, during which I promptly got lost. Now, getting lost in Nepal in probably not on the top 10 list of the best things to do as an American in a foreign country, particularly when you have forgotten the name of the hotel you're staying at, and when every street looks exactly the same. You know that feeling where you just want to sit down, not move, and wait for someone to hold you? Well, I didn't quite experience that, but I did miss my mommy for a brief period of time.

Anyway, today we got in a small bi-plane and took off for Lukla, which is basically the gateway to Everest. How to describe the flight? 20 minutes of thrilling mountains, astonishing beauty at seeing the top of Everest from the plane, and 5 minutes of the most terrifying experience of my life. Lukla is situated in a valley in between several mountain ranges. It, itself, backs up to a mountain. This means that the plane has to be above the mountain range, then bank sharply (and by sharply, I mean turning at such an angle that saying the bottom drops out is like saying Bill Gates has a little bit of money), and then landing on the world's shortest runway, and then stopping in 8 seconds so you don't crash into the mountain. I swear to God that when you land you have 200 feet to stop. The runway is banked uphill to aid in the stopping. And, immediately next to the runway, they have the remains of a plane that didn't quite make the stop in time (those crafty Nepalese sure know how to joke around). Stephanie's right hand will be forever in the bear-claw position since I squeezed it so hard.

But, after putting on a new pair of pants, we then took a short hike to a school where Stephanie and the other dentists inflicted enormous pain on the Nepalese children just to get back at the adults for building a runway like this. Seeing her work on the kids was a blast and the Luklaean children are absolutely adorable. We have a 5 hour trek tomorrow to Yakland, where they have a Space Mountain ride and a wet-n-wild that is to die for. Much more on Stephanie's arrest. For now, I think I may have found a kidney on the left side of the runway.