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Bikram told us that Bom had decided to stay in Lukla overnight and that he wanted to help us take our bags to the airport and say goodbye. After breakfast, he knocked on our door with his every smiling face and slung our bags on our back as we all made our way to Lukla airport. The weather was good which was a relief, as the previous 2 days had seen cancelled flights due to mist. We made it aboard the 1970s tiny plane and took our seats at the front, and this time on the right hand side for good views of the mountains. The propellers started and with a shudder, it advanced down the steep, short runway. Feeling like a roller coaster ride, we were very relieved when it took flight and away from 'the worlds most dangerous airport'. We were glad to arrive at Kathmandu safely and we jumped in a taxi and back to our hostel in town. The previous evening, Bikram had told us that him and the boss would be willing to tell our insurance company that we had taken a helicopter down from base camp. A cost of $1500 for a helicopter meant that this money would go into our pocket. He also told us that he would fix it for Helen to go to the private hospital in Kathmandu to get her knee seen to and include a night or two in their 5 star accommodation. The prospect of getting Helens knee seen was a priority so we went along to meet with Bikram and the manger in the early afternoon. We sat on their officer for a while whilst they chatted, took phone calls and made come conversation with us. We soon realised that this was a reasonably sizeable fraudulent scam which would make them a good couple of thousand dollars from our insurance company. After an hour or so we kindly told them that we weren't interested in getting into anything like this, thanked them for the trip and set off back into Thamel. Another stop to our favourite restaurant, OR2K was made before setting off to find the local hospital for Helen to get her knee seen to. The local hospital was a short walk and looked like something from the late 1800s. We sat in the waiting room and eventually a doctor saw her, prescribed her around 5 different medications, and we were off. We spent the afternoon looking around the shops. That evening was our 'celebration meal' after completing the trek. We turned up at the office and met one of the young guys who worked there who was going to come to the meal with us. The manger and our guide (who we expected to me attending) were obviously very busy! We walked to the restaurant where we sat down surrounded by long tables which quickly filled up with people. We enjoyed a very nice traditional Nepalese meal which was refilled several times - to our delight! We wondered back to Thamel afterwards for a sleep in a proper bed!
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