The small Twin Otter roared down the downhill runway, and in an instant, we were 11,000 ft in the air. I sat on the right side of the plane, and in the clear daylight, I could make out the snowcapped peaks in the distance.
As dusk fell, we were invited to sit in on a puja ceremony. A puja is a cleansing ceremony, meant to dispel all bad spirits and misfortune. Spirituality guides all live here, and every person no matter their faith or ethnicity is invited to join. Inside the main prayer all is a boisterous and party-like atmosphere.
My hands were clutching the shaky armrest of the small Twin Otter as it danced around the hills of the Kathmandu Valley. Twenty minutes into the white knuckle ride from Kathmandu to Lukla, and the plane was flying so low on the hillside terraces that we could make out the individual farms and homes as pilots just barely cleared the rooftops.
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