Above: Very strong caterers carrying a trolley up the stairs to an Airbus A320 at Kuching International Airport.
With an 1145 departure, there wasn’t a rush to get going. I left the apartment at 0900 for Mum’s and headed to the airport with them. I dropped myself off and handed them the key and headed to the AirAsia counter for quick bagdrop.
There was time for laksa at the lounge and do some housekeeping on my laptop, moving many items on to the cloud in preparation for a new computer with an SSD drive with less space. Time flies when one is busy and soon enough, it was time to board for KL where I had a 4h05 transit before my flight to Kathmandu. I was relieved there was no delay or cancellation as I couldn’t afford a missed connection, having booked my parahawking experience for the day after tomorrow.
Working through in my head tomorrow morning’s agenda, I would have to get going early before breakfast. So I bought some bread rolls, one filled with chocolate and another with red bean paste at the shop in the domestic gate area. At MYR0.95, it was cheap (for airport anyway) and it keeps well.
I continued to the international airside and spent a couple of hours in the lounge doing more computer housekeeping. Entering the gate area more than an hour prior to departure, I knew it would be a full flight.
The crowd kept streaming into the plane filling up the aisles before taking their seats. As the scheduled departure time of 1745 approached, a flight attendant tapped on her wrist watch and encouraged the queue of people to make their way to their seats ASAP.
We had some sweaty late-comers so we left about 20 mins late, which is 5 mins beyond the 15 min “on time” tolerance that many airlines use. With a long taxi to the runway, this saw us arriving into Kathmandu 30 mins late.
Once airborne, the crew distributed landing cards for Sri Lanka. Oops! The airline had loaded the wrong forms. Damn! Another hassle in that cramped arrival hall.
AirAsia has a large menu of perhaps 30 meals to choose from on some flights and I’ve been trying many in turn. Today I had prebooked the roast chicken with cranberry gravy. It looked dry and was lukewarm by the time it got to me. Surprisingly, the stuffed chicken breast wasn’t dry and was rather nice. Because I booked it so long ago, I had no recollection of the extras I had added which in this case turned out to be fruit salad and cake. That made it equivalent to a poorly presented version of a full service airline’s meal.
I had some time to rest before we arrived into Kathmandu some 4h35 after departure. This time, our aircraft couldn’t get the gate nearest to the terminal entrance. We were just next to that gate but were required to be bussed to the entrance.
Having completed details for my visa online, I skipped the kiosks and paid my visa fee at the bank desk straight away. No queues! I then completed my arrival card which wasn’t available onboard, then got to the actual immigration counter. Again, no queue – just like my previous trip.
Very socially progressive choices on the Nepal arrival card. Male, Female or Other.
Now, this is when it turns nasty. Going down the escalator to the baggage claim area (going through security first), there was no room to move. Our flight was not showing on the monitor yet, as all available space on the monitor and on the carousel was in use by other fights.
It took nearly an hour (after landing) before our flight showed on the monitor and our bags on the carousel. It was 1h45 before I got my bag; that’s about 15 mins faster than last trip. I made a quick exit and met the hotel driver who was holding a board with the hotel’s name (as opposed to my name).
The driver asked if he could wait for the Dragonair flight because he had another passenger. I said that it took me 2h to get out and his next guest could face the same predicament. He took me to the Grand Thamel hotel without any argument.
Approaching the hotel through a narrow alley, we pulled up towards a strong gate with no signage of the hotel visible. A horrible thought came through my head. Would it be like the guidebook’s warning about Vietnam where travellers are duped by drivers and taken to a “copy” of XYZ hotel (yes, complete with signage). I had gone with the driver who held up the name of the hotel (rather than my name). Anyone could have written up that sign and he could have taken me to any hotel. Even as a highly-seasoned traveller, doubts do crop up sometimes.
As it turned out, all was legit. I paid my room rate and went upstairs to a nice room which I’d only use for a very short night. I crept into bed at 2300 and had set the alarm for 0515 to get going for Pokhara. It was only 4 months ago when I was here in Kathmandu, so I won’t be spending anytime here.