So the trip to Everest Basecamp began yesterday. Cathy took Jeff, Silva and I to the airport Thursday morning.
I dropped my altimeter (gift from Rose and John) going through security. 😢 First casualty of the trip.
We then met John Raithel at the gate and boarded our A350. About this time it started snowing.
Turns out Jeff, Silva, and I were all assigned to row 32.
The the plane went to the pad for de-icing and then got in the cue to take off. We were the next one to depart when the captain decided we needed another round of de-icing and we would need to refuel since we were burning so much on the ground. The captain we needed to add 2 additional tons of jet fuel, which he then explained was not that much😳.
Current status: de-icing. For the second time. #MM4MM pic.twitter.com/R6wscivMxF
— Joel M. Topf, MD FACP (@kidney_boy) March 1, 2018
So the whole back to the gate to re-fuel, back to the pad to de-ice and get back in the cue to take off put us 3 hours behind schedule.
Jeff found it odd that we would need to refuel before taking off, but it turns out that Detroit to Seoul (DTW-ICN) is one of the longest non-stops that Delta flies.
Note the route we are taking because this the source of the post’s title. A few hours into the flight, I looked outside of the window and caught the last glimpse of the sun setting.
Then a few hours later I opened up the shade expecting to see darkness, but I got…
We had gone far enough north that we were able to keep up with the rotation of the earth so we were trapped in a perpetual moment after sunset. Eventually the sun must have set and night passed but I never saw it. A few hours later I looked out and it was getting lighter with Friday’s dawn.
We landed at 7 PM at Inchion International Airtport. We went through a shockingly relaxed customs and immigration and took a bus to Paradise City, a new, and very nice hotel.
Today’s adventure: Kathmandu!