Kathmandu to Bangkok
Sunday 22nd January 2006.
I had a somewhat restless night which didn’t auger well for the tiring trip home. I showered and dressed ready for my last breakfast in Nepal – for this trip at least. After breakfast I settled my hotel account and did my final packing. At about 10am I went down to the jewellery shop near the hotel lobby. I bought a beautiful blue topaz stone for Corinne. This will be a 35th wedding anniversary present.
Waiting in Kathmandu Airport
I was able to watch some of the cricket from Sydney before the driver came to take me to the airport. Ananta came briefly to say farewell. My passage through the airport didn’t take very long so I had over an hour to wait for boarding. During the wait in the lounge I did some reading. During the time here I have almost finished reading Sean Dooley’s book “The Big Twitch.†Sean, who is from Melbourne, took a year off work to break the unofficial Australian bird watching record. He set out to be the first to see over 700 different species of birds in Australia in one calendar year. He actually saw 703; the previous total was 633 species. I remember reading of his regular updates on Birding-Aus reports on the internet during his quest. The book has been very entertaining.
Another frisking
When we eventually boarded the plane – after yet another frisking on the tarmac – there was another half hour wait before takeoff. I didn’t quite understand what the pilot announced as a reason. Anyway, whatever the reason the flight to Bangkok was very smooth and uneventful. I managed to read a little more of my book and also get a short nap.
Bangkok Airport
Our plane was about half an hour late getting into Bangkok. By the time we had left the plane, completed the long hike through the terminal and been processed through immigration, it was after seven o’clock, Thailand time. I found an internet café in the transit lounge and sent a short email to Corinne, Rose and Simon.
Long wait in the transit lounge
I still had about five hours to wait in the transit lounge before my flight. This is not the most exciting place to spend five hours. There were only about seven or eight duty free shops there with little of interest to me. At about 9pm I had a chicken burger, not knowing when they would serve meals on the flight to Melbourne. At this stage I didn’t feel like reading. I was fascinated watching the monitors showing flights details of planes boarding at this airport. At one stage I counted at least 16 different cities around the world listed as destinations for planes from Bangkok. Some of these included Brisbane, Sydney, Auckland, Singapore, Tokyo, Osaka, Los Angeles, Dubai, Kulkata (Calcutta), Frankfurt, London, Moscow and the list goes on.
Long journey ahead
Just after 11pm I went through security and then waited in the check-in lounge. I tried to read but tiredness hindered my concentration. I still had a nine hours flight to Melbourne, then two hours in Melbourne and then another hour flight to Adelaide plus an hour drive home to Murray Bridge. It was going to be a long journey.