Today we were cast out of paradise. Bags out at 8 AM, left the hotel at 8:30 to head to the airport for our flight to Delhi and trips back home. A bottle of scotch in my checked bag, with maybe a few inches left, was confiscated for no reason I could fathom- the same bottle with more left in it had been OK when I left Delhi just a few days earlier. If it was meant to motivate me to replenish my supply at Nepal Duty-Free, it didn’t work. Something to ponder: if a few inches of scotch must be confiscated because it’s a safety risk, why can anyone buy a whole bottle of the stuff at Duty-Free and carry it on board? And- while we’re pondering- why, after you and your bags have been X-rayed, you’ve gone through the metal detector and been frisked before entering a secure area, they check your bags and frisk you again before you get on the plane?
I noticed that the boarding groups for some flights were
almost entirely young men, off to Abu Dhabi and Kuala Lumpur. These are “guest workers”- Nepalese who work
elsewhere, sometimes menial work or demanding construction jobs building the
new skyscrapers. Remittances, the
earnings that these workers send home, make up 29% of Nepal’s GDP. (Tourism is another 9%.) A poster in the boarding area for a
money-transfer service showed a motherly-looking Indian woman happily holding a
check- presumably from a child working abroad.
We spent the remaining hours before out early-AM
international flights out of Delhi at a nearby hotel, which saved us sitting in the airport
for 10-12 hours between flights. I got
in a good gym workout and a shower and then joined the group for a buffet
dinner in the restaurant. I’m going to
miss this food.
Thursday, March 29
I took the car service to Delhi airport for my 1:45 AM
flight and cleared check-in, Immigration and Security with few delays thanks to
my Business Class ticket. I guess
British Airways can’t be bothered with having a lounge at Delhi because I was
handed a pass to a generic lounge which turned out to be overheated, and overcrowded,
with a so-so food selection but the usual open bar. I was feeling a bit wretched- the food didn’t
even tempt me, which is very unusual- so my first move was to get a bottle of water
and dissolve the remainder of my stash of electrolyte powder into it and drink
that first. I perked up after that and
enjoyed a glass of wine. I guess I need to be careful of dehydration now. That electrolyte powder comes in handy.
I got a couple of hours of good sleep on the flight from
Delhi to London- and then my innards started to rumble. I made enough visits to the bathroom that I
eventually begged the crew for some Imodium. (Mine was in the overhead
compartment and I just didn’t feel like looking for it.) A motherly flight attendant with a lovely
Irish brogue took down some information (they have to record when they provide
medications) and then found the pills in a large plastic container with an
impressive pharmacopeia of medications. Well,
nearly everyone on the trip had had some episode of Delhi Belly bad enough to
keep them away from one activity or another and I wasn’t immune after all. We landed in London, where I had to go
through the rigmarole of going through the Immigration lines just so I could
retrieve and re-check my bag. (Although
I was connecting form another British Airways flight I‘d had to book them as
separate itineraries and they refused to check my bag through to DFW.)
The alcohol selection in the lounge was impressive, even at
8 AM. Unfortunately that was the last
thing I wanted and the food selection wasn’t as good. I’d been hoping for some cheese, but there
was none, so settled on dry toast- least likely to rile my system.
My flight from London to DFW was a 10-hour flight that turned into an
11-hour flight thanks to a delay while rebooting the ancient entertainment
system and a strong headwind. I’d paid
for a seat just behind the Exit row with no seat in front of me- well worth it
although I kept wanting to push the button that would let me fully
recline. Ummm… no, not in Steerage. As I arrived at the Airport Marriott and
checked in I calculated that it had been 48 hours since we left our hotel in
Kathmandu. I showered, read a few pages,
and turned off the light. The next morning I took the brief flight from DFW back home.
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