From Kathmandu To Boston

Siddhi B. Ranjitkar

We have had an opportunity of visiting our grand kids in the United States. So, we took this opportunity and settled to fly on May 17, 2010. Our journey has been uncertain for some time, as the Icelandic volcano has continued to smoke out ashes in the European sky and has intensified a few days before we start off our journey from Nepal. Some of the northern British airports have been closed temporarily giving doubt about whether the Heathrow would remain open while we will be on the transit there. We could not do anything about the volcanic ashes except for waiting to see the nature to pacify the volcano.

On May 17, 2010, immediately after 3:00 PM, we left home for the Kathmandu International Airport to be there well before 4:00 PM, as Gulf Airline people advised us to be at the airport three hours before the flight time. Fortunately, the day was quiet and no shutdown of any sorts. So, we arrived at the airport without hitch on the way well before the scheduled time.

The airport checking have been numerous and repetitive.

Four luggage and two hand-carry bags have been too much for the people of over sixty years of age. However, we pushed them on the airport carts to the first airport checkpoint. Immediately after entering the airport entrance, we loaded them on the conveyer for sending our luggage through the electronic security checking. One of the security men stuck the labels ‘security checked’ on our luggage including the handbags. Then, the security police searched our bodies. Thereafter, we picked up the luggage and loaded them on the carts and pushed them to the Gulf Airline counter. The airline people are cooperative. After taking the weights of all bags they asked us to transfer some of the articles from the handbags to two of the luggage, as the two luggage turned out to be under weight while our handbags have become over weight.

Following our e-tickets, the Gulf Airline staff at the Kathmandu airport counter made printouts of boarding cards for all three flights from Kathmandu to Boston and the luggage receipts. They shipped our luggage from Kathmandu to Boston, and stuck the receipts for the luggage on the back of my passport, and said, ‘You will receive them at the Lagan airport in Boston.’ They advised us to report to the Virgin Airline staff at Heathrow for new boarding cards presenting the board cards they have printed out.

Holding the boarding cards and passports with one hand and pulling the handbag with another we went to the escalator that was running for taking us to the second floor of the airport building. The security men sitting at the escalator checked our boarding passes and then let us ride on the escalator to the second floor.

The poorly lighted second floor airport building has already a long serpentine line of youths lining up for the immigration clearance. We fill up the green immigration forms and have also lined up to the immigration counters. Several counters have been working on for clearing up so many people going to the Middle East for jobs.

The immigration staff is pretty practical and work fast. At the counter, he checks the immigration forms and asks a few questions just to complete the formalities following the law and then puts stamps on the departure stickers he has just stuck on our passports and then asks our boarding passes and stamps on them, too.

Now, we are moving to the large hall where the security people are standing at the several counters for security checking. Time has not been yet for us to check in. We sat on two of the several chairs set there. Feeling a bit of thirsty, I went to buy two soft drinks at one of the airport-duty free stores. The airport store charges one hundred rupees for the soft drink that sells at forty rupees at the regular market in the town. The irony is that the price of soft drink at the duty free store has been more than twice the price at the regular market.

Check-in time has come. Again we sent our handbags through the electronic checking. Then, we took the handbags to the counter where the security man manually checked them. The security asked me a few questions and found no objectionable items in my handbags and pushed it signaling it has passed through the checking.

We thought that finally we have passed through all the checking counters. However, it is not so. After walking through the airport corridor to the waiting lounge, again we faced with a security man sitting at the entrance to the waiting lounge. We needed to produce the boarding passes and the passports for entering the lounge.

Surprisingly, the Nepalese securities have been very polite. So, we did not feel harassed going through several checks at the Kathmandu airport.

Not much time is left for us to sit at the waiting lounge. We have spent almost three hours on going through various checking points. So, we did not need to sit for a long time before the boarding call. A lady standing at the entrance tore off the main portions of the boarding passes and kept returning the portions having names and seat numbers to the passengers. We boarded on the airport bus but we saw the plane at the very short walking distance. To our irritation, the bus remained stranded for a while. We would have been on the plane if we were allowed to walk. Again, at the entrance to the plane, a man with a widely smiling face checked the boarding slip apparently for showing us the seats. Thus, we have passed through the eight checkpoints before being seated on our seats in the plane. Finally, we did it. The plane was full of Nepalis going to work in the Middle East.

The Gulf Air plane is a comparatively new Airbus. It has comfortable seats. Airhostesses are perfect in serving the passengers. The plane took off just on time. We can see the gradually semi-glowing night-lights in Kathmandu. The plane made a regular safety circular tour in the Kathmandu sky before going out of the valley. We are on the way to Bahrain.

Flying was smooth for some time. Soon, we encountered air turbulences. The plane was flying on the rough weather bumping a little bit but not enough to scare the passengers. My spouse was concerned with the bumping but soon the plane was on the smooth silky airways again. Hostesses served regular meals and drinks to the satisfaction of the passengers.

The captain announced the weather conditions in Bahrain. The atmospheric temperature was 31 Celsius in Bahrain at 9:00 PM. It was quite hot we assumed. We saw nothing but dark water for some time and distance lights from the plane. The plane has descended considerably but we did not see any land at all. Bahrain is a small island with the tiny population. The plane came down and touched down smoothly. The plane moved gradually to its destination. Ultimately, it pulled over at the disembarking tube, and stayed there for us to disembark.

We did not feel the outside heat while walking on the disembarking tube. Then, while walking on the airport lounge passage we felt like walking on the streets of the northern European towns. We saw some people putting on outer coats. We were in the summer outfits. So, we needed to live in the cool climate with the summer outfits for three hours. The nice thing was we did not need to go through any checking at the Bahrain airport except for boarding. We have the boarding passes and we simply waited for the boarding time.

We were not sure that boarding would be on time. At the Kathmandu airport lounge someone had reminded the fellow passengers that some airports in Europe have been closed due to the volcanic ashes. However, we did not have any alternative to the hope for taking off from the Bahrain airport on time.

To our great relief, the boarding counter was opened just on time. Passengers were called in to board the plane. Then, we were sure that we would be at least flying from Bahrain. While walking through the embarking tube to the plane, suddenly we were stopped and kept waiting. We thought that this must be a bad omen. We started off thinking the possible closure of the Heathrow airport again. After sometime our fear proved to be wrong and we moved on to the plane. Apparently, they have stopped us to make a way for the person on a wheelchair to board the plane.

The Gulf Air plane was not a new at all. One passenger sitting just behind us commented that he had flown on such a plane twenty years ago. So, the plane must be of at least twenty-year old model. I found a liquid-soap case replaced with a plastic cup with some soap in the airplane toilet. However, we did not feel any discomfort on the plane. Hostesses were as good as those on the first plane we flew on from Kathmandu to Bahrain. Flying was as smooth as we could imagine.

While the plane was approaching the Heathrow, it was already morning and we could see clear sky and beautiful British landscape, towns and villages from the air. We were looking for the frightful volcanic ashes shown on the TV screens by the internationally renowned TV channels. News anchors have been telling the viewers that the airport authorities had been almost at the verge of closing the airports in view of the volcanic ashes blown to the British sky. However, we saw blue sky and clean landscape. We were happy as had been never before and we were sure that we would surely reach our final destination on schedule.

Plane landing was perfect at the Heathrow. Every passenger took out his/her carry-on luggage for disembarking the plane. It did not take a long time to come out of the plane and walked in the tube to the airport lounge. The airport has made some good changes in taking the transit passengers to their destination terminals. Previously, we walked a long airport corridor to reach the security checkpoint. This time, we just walked for a few minutes and reached the area where a middle-aged woman was sitting behind the desk with label ‘security’. She asked, ‘where are you going to?’ We said, ‘to the terminal 3’. She showed the glass doors and opened them to reach the bus with sign of ‘terminal 3’. We boarded the bus standing for taking us to the terminal 3.

The bus took the winding route underground and over ground for several minutes before reaching the terminal 3. We felt that we must have traveled half the airport terminal area before reaching our destination. The clear sky has made us happy as never before.

We came to the security checkpoint. We have read several notices displayed on boards on the way to the checkpoint but we could hardly keep all those messages in our heads because of the stress caused by the night air travel and the concern for the volcanic ashes. At the checkpoint, I faced the harsh word of one of the security personnel saying, ‘you should have read the notice’ when I tried to keep my laptop with the case-on on a tray for passing through the electronic checking. Then, my spouse had to throw her valuable face cream because it had leaked a little bit to the displeasure of the woman security with loud voices. We thought, ‘we are not in Britain as our previous experience in the British checkpoints were so nice and we know that the British are so polite. So, we assume that this time these guys are possibly not British but cheap labors hired for the security checking.’

We are not against security checks. Security checks are essential for the safety of the passengers. We had even passed through eight checkpoints at the Kathmandu airport without getting upset. However, we would have been well off if the security officials have been cooperative and polite to the passengers.

After the unusual distasteful event at the security checkpoint, we came to the ticket counter of the Virgin Airline. We saw the same man we had seen in our previous trip standing there for checking our passports. He has been a bit older than we saw him in our previous trip in 2006. He took a look at our photos in the passports and then checked our faces. Then, he stuck the stickers with the label of ‘security’ on the back of our passports.

Our next move is to the ticket counter. We gave the boarding passes we received at the Gulf Air ticket counter in Kathmandu and our passports to the man at the counter. After checking the visa to the US, he printed out two boarding passes and turned them over to us with our passports. Then, he gave us two US visa forms and one custom form. We were set for the Virgin flight.

We had eight-hour lay-down time at the Heathrow. First thing, we did was to go to the bathroom in turn for bowel clearance and wash. This time, we did not find the lounge so crowded as used to be in the past. Maybe, the volcanic ashes have scared away the passengers or there are some other reasons for such a thin presence of passengers in the highly busy lounge.

Our next concern is to eat. We have some cookies and potato chips but that foodstuffs are not enough for holding us eight hours at the lounge. So, we went around to see some food on display at the eating-places. We saw sandwiches with varieties of items but most of them are unfamiliar to us. So, we had to go from one eating-place to another to get a couple of sandwiches.

After eating the sandwiches and drinking a bottle of diet soft drink, we went to in search of low light area to have a nap. Except for when you are tired and have had not even a little sleep on the plane, you cannot sleep at the lounge. We have had several-hour sleep on board the plane so sleep has not come to us even at the relatively quiet area at the lounge.

While we were at the lounge, a group of women, men and children all wearing stickers on their chests with ‘IOM’ (International Organization for Migration) showed up at our area. We understood from their talking that they were flying to New York and then Dallas. Judging from their talking and activities, we assumed that they might be the Bhutanese refugees from Nepal brought to settle in the United States.

Watching the electronic boards displaying flight schedules has been one of the ways of passing our time at the airport lounge. The flight schedules show up only two hours before flights, and the gate number through which you board the plane appears only one hour before the boarding time on the electronic boards displaying flight schedules.

We noticed three different flight schedules including the Virgin Flight from London to Boston at the same. We thought that there were three flights from London to Boston but at the time of boarding the plane, we found only one plane for boarding the passengers of the three different flights displayed on the electronic board.

The seats on the Virgin Atlantic plane are relatively narrow. However, it is quite enough for the Nepalis. You see everything red in it, as it might be the color of the airline in question.

We have requested Hindu meals on board the plane. So, a hostess came running with two trays of food holding by her hands to us and asked, did you order for Hindu meals?’ ‘Yes’ was our answer, then, she placed one tray after another on the plane-seat table for us. We saw the label with our family name on the trays. The food comprises mash potatoes with potato curry and some baked beans.

After the meal, we set for filling out the visa forms and a custom form. After the two flights: one from Kathmandu to Bahrain and another from Bahrain to London, we were used to the flight and we did not feel the seven-hour flight from London to Boston was a long flight. So, after completing the filling out of forms, and then having a little nap, we found that we were at the Lagan airport in Boston.

At the immigration, redline is for US citizens, and blue line is for non-US citizens. So, we went through the blue line and then to the Immigration Officer. He took the fingerprints: first of four fingers and then of the thumbs of both hands, and then asked a few questions concerning our visit, and then stitched the visa slips to our passports.

Taking out the luggage from the fast moving conveyer is not so simple for the senior people like us. However, we managed to collect the luggage and put them on carts and then pushed them to the Custom Officer.

Two grand kids, their parents and relatives were at the Lagan to receive us. Finally, we did the journey from one corner of the earth to another in about 20 hours: flight time.

May 28, 2010