Adventure is a State of Mind: Leaving Nepal V: Flying over the NORTH POLE

Ready to fly over the North Pole with me?? Welcome to my favorite leg of my journey from Nepal to the US!

Catch up if you haven't yet read the other parts of the journey:

The Village // Village → Kathmandu // KTM Airport // Dubai

Reading time: 5 minutes

Recap

FLIGHT 1: KTM → Dubai (5 hours, 6:30-11:30PM body clock time)

LAYOVER: Dubai (11.25 hours, 11:30PM-10:45AM body clock time)

Time for flight 2...

✈ Flight #2: Dubai to LAX ✈

Duration: 16 hours

Airline: Emirates

Nepal Time (My Body Clock): 10:45 AM-2:45 AM

Dubai Time (Departure Location Clock): 9 AM-1 AM

Los Angeles Time (Arrival Location Clock): 10 PM-2 PM

This was the NICEST flight I have ever been on. WOW. I had an entire row to myself. The plane was about 25% full. It was extremely comfortable. The flight attendants were LOVELY. They were so welcoming and genuinely seemed to enjoy their work. At the start of the flight, they announced the names of all of the pilots, as well as the countries they were from (ours were from Ireland, India, Australia, and Kenya). They proudly shared that the crew on that flight were from 12 different countries and spoke 11 languages between them. They also said that their air is sanitized and cleansed so that it is entirely new air every 2 minutes, and they circulate air within each passenger area to minimize spread of air between passengers. They handed out care packs, with hand sanitizer, sleep mask, socks, even stickers to put on your seat ("do not disturb," "wake for food," "wake for duty free shopping"). I had never seen anything like it.

My own row // Care package

When they did the first drink service after takeoff, I said I'd like water, and the flight attendant said, "Just water? Are you sure you wouldn't like something else as well? Mango juice, orange juice, tea, wine, coffee..." and I sheepishly said, "Mango juice sounds good..." and he gave me 2 DRINKS. I was feeling so cared for.

The desert and Gulf of Oman near Dubai, from above!

I absolutely loved this flight. We flew directly over the North Pole to get from Dubai to Los Angeles; I got to see the northern tip of our planet with my own eyes. It was incredible. When we were close, I opened my window-shade and asked that same flight attendant from before if that was alright. He said cheerfully, "Well I can't answer that for you, it's up to you!" I commented that we were close to the North Pole, and he told me about the first time he had flown over it, one of the most special moments in his life. I have never had a flight attendant speak more than a sentence at once to me (understandably so, they're usually so busy!), so this felt particularly unique.

Flying over the North Pole was one of the most surreal, beautiful, special experiences I have had to date. Having even one single window-shade open here lit the plane up bright white due to the sun's reflection off of the ice!

The food was amazing, absolutely the best airplane food I've ever had. I don't know what to call most of the things I ate, but just know that it was delicious and all vegetarian. The dessert below is something I will dream of. If anybody knows what that's called, leave it in a comment please!

Breakfast was SO good. I don't know the names of anything I ate except for the croissant. Also, it's amusing that the only two croissants I've had in the last... 15 months?... were on this morning.

Meal number 2 (lunch? Dinner? Time zones are weird): paneer curry with rice, chickpeas, a roll, and a dessert that I NEED someone to tell me the name of. SO GOOD.

For the entire flight, I just wrote in my notebook or slept. I didn't watch a single movie or video or listen to any podcasts. Just writing or sleeping, or watching the flight. I left on the flight tracker the entire time and looked out my window when I could. When it was too bright (when flying over the ice, it is SO bright, like it hurts the eyes and lights up the entire plane), I would turn on the video being taken live by a camera outside the plane. Again, a feature I had never heard of or seen before. So dreamy.

Read the contents of this notebook in my Notebook blog series, here.

Not surprisingly, I slept better and more on this flight than I ever have slept on a plane. I'm not sure how much sleep I got, but I do know that I have been feeling fabulous for this entire week (the week after my flights), no jetlag or post-travel sickness, and I'm guessing the mid-travel sleep helped a lot with that. I got to lay down across my row with a blanket and multiple pillows, I felt so comfortable and safe. It was like the tornado had passed and now there were only blue skies. I kept pinching myself because it didn't feel real.

Beyond comfortable. When they make it "night time" on the plane - time for sleeping - they have stars on the ceiling that light up!! Again, a first time treat.