Martin

Hi there everyone and thanks for checking in.

I’m supposed to be in Kathmandu but I’m not.

The 9.30 flight to Doha last night was still on the tarmac at 11.30 when the engineers finally decided it wasjust too big for both of them. Flight cancelled. Qatar airlines bussed us to the Raddisson Edwardian Hotel which (amazingly and without fuss) managed to feed about 350 unexpected guests of many nationalities with a great cold buffet at 1am. It was a surreal experience sitting down for a midnight snack with a table of people comprising Dutch, Indian, Nepali and me. They all spoke English of course – I hate it when that happens!!! The chat was split between the terrible earthquake in Pakistan and concern for our checked baggage, which the airline have sent on ahead to Kathmandu !!!

Breakfast was to be at 8.30 so I set my alarm for 7.30am. The TV buzzed me awake at 6.30 and I grumpily switched it off and went back to sleep. Got up at 7.30 and called reception “”Oh the Qatar Airlines flight Sir – yes the bus is just leaving now””. Oh Shit Oh Shit Oh Shit and I was out the door with my bags before you could say Oh Shit. Just made the bus and we caught the 11am flight from Gatwick to Doha, which left at 12 noon. (There’s a pattern emerging here).

Great flight to Doha- a Nepali family was 2 rows in front of me on the plane with 2 kids of 3-5ish. they screamed like hell on takeoff then, when they settled down they started climbing all over the place. Must have mountineering in the blood. They were balancing along the top of their seats, holding on to the ceiling, and going back and forward. All the Nepalis were smiling as if to say äww ain’t that cute”. I thought it was great but I can’t imagine me letting Megan do it.

In Doha, at the transfer desk, a rumour went round that there weren’t enough spaces on the 11pm Kathmandu flight so some people were being routed via Abu Dhabi. The guy behind the desk frowned at my ticket and the screen for ages before happily announcing I was booked on the KTM flight (whew….). His smile widened as he told me I was upgraded to business class……. yippee…… His smile never even flickered as he told me the 11pm flight was actually scheduled to leave at 11.35pm (ok, no big deal) or even when he further informed me that it had, however, been delayed til 3.30am.

So I’m in the business class lounge at Doha Airport and I’ve just caught Kath & Meg before Meg’s bedtime. I’m due to arrive in KTM early pm local time tomorrow, a day behind scedule, and I’m having fun. I’ve said hello to some of the people I’m trekking with, 4 blokes + 2 couples, mostly bearded rambler types (yes, before you ask). I seem to be the youngest by a country mile apart from Fritz the Dutchman. There’s Barry from Yorkshire, Ralph from somewhere in Northern Ireland who sounds like a 40-a-day Ian Paisley, Fritz the Dutchman from Norfolk (I can’t remember the rest of their names so I’ll have to ask them again tomorrow or find out by cunning detective work in the way you have to when you don’t want to appear stupid).

Not sure when next post will be but keep checking in, we at Reilly Travel know you have a choice inyour entertaining reading material and we thank you for choosing to read with us… ….

Love and hugs

Martin

Tags: business, delays, Nepal, Oct 2005 Nepal

This entry was posted on Monday, October 10th, 2005 at 9:09 pm and is filed under Oct 2005 Nepal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.