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 Nepalese airports following a trip that didn’t go to plan…

I was awake in a hostel in Pokara from about 6:00 AM, 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 Mum and one from Trailfinders about a change to my flight home, as I had requested help to leave this project I’d been helping with and I was given a couple of options of how. It was apparently 27 *C, one of the group I’d been working with came out of his room, coughing and sniffing, Settee the dog (who had been very kind to me) was setting an excellent example of how to relax and a car parked next door had a man walking round it whacking it with a tea towel.

I began packing up at 12:30 PM, was told by someone I forgot that a flight had been booked at 1:45 PM for me, I finished packing, took a picture of the empty room at 1:55 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 as I was driven to the airport, 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 quite fathom out the seating system, but thankfully the flight wasn’t packed. The photos of the trip on the 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, then in the sunshine – I saw a woman (mid 50s ish) holding a tube of sour cream Pringles and I remained there – 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 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, told me not to worry and showed me the three flights left today. 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 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, and my buttocks were going numb by 7:55 PM, so I got up, then 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 the 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 my mother a souvenir (some tea leaves in a nice wooden box), realised the flight for Doha was boarding at that point and headed for the gate where quite a few people with the traditional red blobs (which I learnt are called ‘bindi’ and are traditionally worn by women for religious purposes or to indicate that they’re married) on their foreheads were sat, 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, the woman continued to whimper 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 at 9:45 PM precisely. The next stop was Birmingham…….. To be continued.