I Love Airplanes!
Lets get some things straight. I love airplanes. Who doesn’t, right? The fact that we can overcome gravity with cleaver engineering and by the brute force of a jet engine, propel ourselves to locations deemed impractical just several short decades ago. It is amazing! I even love the aspect of flying as a passenger, as long as the flight is less than four hours long and doesn’t directly follow a flight that is equal to or greater in duration. As we set off from Billings, MT, I had forgotten my disdain for long flights, a disdain that would be renewed on this trip.
Airports
Airports are likewise amazing spectacles. Although some can be rather bland, most have their own style and go to good length to make sure your time there is relatively enjoyable. Our first stop was Seattle’s international airport, one that I have frequented as it is typically the en-route stop for flights from Bozeman to Portland. I like this airport. The main seating area is large and allows you a great view of the runway, a plus for those that get mesmerized by aviation. Airports are also a great place to people watch. We were plenty watched as we posed for a group photo in the food court.
Flying
You can only be in avionic bliss for so long before the side-effects of a long plane ride sink in. This first thing to go wrong is all comfort gradually evaporates. For most, boredom sinks in. Sooner on flights without an entertainment system, but it invariably does set in at some point. I always bring books to read on a plane, yet can never pull myself together enough to actually read. Sleep occurs, but is typically broken by the occasional bit of turbulence, the outcry of a nearby infant or toddler or discomfort in general. The odd part is that no matter how much sleep you get on a plane, you somehow feel more drained at the end of a flight. Now this is all relative to the quality of the airline, the amount of people on the flights and how exhausted you are when you got on the plane to begin with.
The Arrival
It’s amazing what “just being done” does to your psyche. As we landed in Kathmandu, shrugging off nearly 44 hours of collective travel time, most of us suddenly came back to life. We needed to. The airport was a bit rundown, about the same capacity as the one in Bozeman, but larger in general. We had a lot to accomplish, as there were 24 of us scrambling to get through customs, get our bags and somehow get out of the airport in one large group. Once we found our local contact, we headed out to the parking lot to offload our bags, keeping our bags from being touched by the hordes of locals trying to earn a buck carrying traveler’s bags. We all climbed into the chartered bus, some a bit exasperated. We had just finished travelling to Nepal, but the adventure had just begun!