I know how lucky I am to have done all the travelling I’ve done (Greenland was the next one planned – until the pandemic hit), and airports are fascinating places – these were my observations in a Nepalese airport on my way home after a trip – a few years ago now – that didn’t go to plan…

I was awake in a hostel in Pokhara from about 6:00 AM onwards, still with a very sore neck and right big toe. Once out of the shower, I covered myself in sun cream and tried to make sure my feet were in a reasonable state. Out on the balcony, I got an e-mail from my mother and one from Trailfinders about a change to my flight home, giving me a couple of options. It was apparently 27 degrees, Chris came out of his room, still coughing and sniffing, a car parked next door had a man walking round it whacking it with a tea towel, and the dog called Settee – who’d been very nice to me for the 3 weeks of the volunteering project – was enjoying the temperatures.

I began packing up at 12:30 PM, – as I’d decided to leave the project, which wasn’t going well, and was told by someone I forgot, that there’d been a flight home for me booked at 1:45 PM ; I finished packing, took a picture of the empty room at 12:55 PM and said goodbye.

A very traditional looking man with a colourful hat helped me put my rucksack in the car boot; I saw a Mount Fishtail Provision Store, a Joyland Kindergarten, and most shops with everything on the front in English. The bloke dropped me off and smiled (and I waved at him), I went into the airport, got my ticket, checked my bag in, went through the security checking bit and was felt all over by a woman (which tickled a bit) and then sat down inside this propeller plane – where I couldn’t fathom out the seating system, but thankfully the flight wasn’t packed.

The photos of the trip on my camera added up to 1249 at this point, and movement began at 1.38pm, a female member of the cabin crew waved her arms around a bit and demonstrated how to put on an oxygen mask, and then we took off at 1:41 PM. The views of the river and the mountains were wonderful, the female cabin crew person handed out boiled sweets and lemon scented face wipes (the gunk that appeared on my face wipe was startling); by 1:52 PM, we were flying precisely at cloud level, there were very interesting cloud formations and some mountains poking up through them on the left side of the plane (presumably one of them was Mount Everest); 10 minutes later, sharp banking to the left was done and an announcement was made in a foreign language, we descended along a valley and across the city, more sharp banking to the left was done and we landed at 2:09 PM.

A massive oil tanker was next to the plane within 5 minutes, I disembarked at 2:19 PM and we were all loaded onto a bus, driven into a ‘domestic terminal building’ within 4 minutes, waited in the sunshine, I saw a woman (mid 50s ish) holding a tube of sour cream Pringles and I was feeling more cheerful than I had for at least the last two weeks while waiting to heave my rucksack off the luggage trailer.
My rucksack didn’t appear, a small Nepalese man told me mine was coming on the next flight and he’d find it for me – it would be 10 to 15 minutes. Sweat began to dribble down my neck while waiting in sunshine, a builder was whacking some metal with a hammer – making very loud noises (it seemed the luggage conveyers inside the building were being refurbished); then mine appeared, I went to a desk and tried to explain my flight request – and phoned my mother via a phone on the desk (and she told me to find an airport hotel in Istanbul if I couldn’t get a flight) and a small man showed me to a different bit of the airport, asked my name and told me a bit of his life story and why he stayed here. In this bit, another man helped me try phoning home, Mum didn’t seem to be there, so we tried to call her mobile, which didn’t work, he told me not to worry and showed me the three flights left today. I got a bottle of water, I was helped a bit more and given a Nepalese SIM card as the airport Wi-Fi was being rather weird, this man continued to try and assist, said if I needed help, he was here, then the Wi-Fi seemed to kick in again, I walked over to the departures bit and stuck my very low on battery phone on charge at a charging point. I got the e-mail at that point saying I was now booked on a business class Qatar Airways flight leaving at 9:25 PM, then a flight from Doha to Birmingham, leaving at 1:50 AM. I replied (the e-mail contained a picture from where I was stood), then I saw a baggage wrapping service (i.e. wrapping bags in cling film), and my stomach was rumbling a bit. I sat on the floor – having decided to wait until 8:00 PM before removing my phone from the charging point, I saw a woman with a SpongeBob Square Pants sticker on her suitcase, boxes of Real Crunch – popular cornflakes, ‘A little happiness with Fudujya sweets’ was on a girls t shirt, my buttocks were going numb by 7:55 PM, so I got up – and after 10 minutes stood by my phone, I received a reply from Mum. Then I heaved my bag off the floor, went and checked it in, and was alerted to the fact that there was a business class lounge upstairs. There was a massive advert for Hongshi Cement at the top of an escalator, a very small man gave me an embarkation card – which I filled in, headed towards the immigration desks, and there – a man with a traditional hat on stamped my tickets and passport, and I told him ‘I like your hat’ – and pointed at my own head a bit while saying it to clarify things – and he smiled, looked very cheerful and said ‘thank you misses!’. Then I went through security and was felt all over again (and once again it tickled), found Mum some tea in a nice wooden box, realised the flight was boarding at that point and headed for the gate.

At the gate, where quite a few people with the traditional red blobs on their foreheads (which I learnt are called ‘bindi’ and are traditionally worn by women for religious purposes or to indicate that they’re married), it was a nice temperature, pitch black outside; and on the plane I was thanked by a woman in uniform for flying with Qatar Airways, offered a drink and either a cold or hot towel, my fleece was hung up somewhere, blankets were on the seats, sparkling water in a glass with a slice of lemon was delivered to me, we were all reminded that the flight time would be 4 hours and 30 minutes, and the plane started moving a couple of minutes later. Then we were all thanked again, I had it pointed out to me that I had a noise cancellation headset in front of me, given a menu and we took off – heading for Doha – at 9:45 PM precisely. To be continued.