Leaving India ..

November 3rd, 2006

Okay, all the festivities over, it’s time to say goodbye to Delhi and Hello to Kathmandu. If I remember it correctly our flight with Indian Airlines, was IC-813 and was scheduled for around 1 pm IST. And there was another problem, we are not supposed to carry currency note of 500 (INR) into Nepal, its not that we cannot carry, but it wont be accepted, so taking all the cash in 100’s was a headache. We stocked some bundles in our pockets and rest went securely into luggage.

So lets come to the Legendry Indian Auto Rickshaw, contrary to popular belief that they rip western tourists, they do not spare even their Indian brethren, and when you tell them you want to go to International Airport, then it automatically rings a bell that you are more moneyed than the average man on the street. So after lot of haggling we hired an Auto Rickshaw and reached Airport at around 11 AM.

At the air India counter we were given some immigration forms, which we filled promptly, collected our boarding passes and the rest of the process was like a breeze. We were asked couple of questions at the immigration and there were no major hassles.

So there we were sitting in the waiting terminal of International Airport, surrounded with well heeled Indians and foreigners. In fact I have heard a lot of criticism about the condition of Airports in India, however since I have not seen any airport other than Indian ones and now Nepalese, I somehow still find them quite okay. Maybe that’s because I have nothing to compare them with. So we were sitting there observing the mannerisms of all sorts of passengers, kids, staff, Air Hostesses ;-).

Boarding started quite late from the scheduled time, which made us worry about Mr. Manjit Thapa, as he was supposed to pick us up from the Airport in Kathmandu as 3:15 PM. And once we were on the place, it didn’t take off for another 30 minutes or so, as there was no slot for it on the runway.

Finally we were airborne by 2 pm, and anxiously started to wait for the meals to be served. We were quite glad that the staff didn’t waste much time and started serving as soon as the seatbelt sign went off. I don’t exactly recall what was served, but it was not very filling, however was of decent quality.

I struck a conversation with a fellow passenger was quite a regular visitor to Nepal. He told me that we could have booked Royal Nepal Airlines instead, as they served liquor on board. So next time it would be Royal Nepal Airline for me. He also told us about the distance between Kathmandu and Pokhara, various means of transport. He told me that there was no need of changing the IC (Indian Currency) to NC (Nepalese Currency), as everyone in Nepal would welcome the IC and would give us the change in IC or if they return the balance in NC they will give it according to exchange rate. All across Nepal they followed the standard rate of 1 IC = 1.6 IC. So it means that if I purchase something worth NC 80, and hand over a IC 100 note, so they assume that they have got NC 160 and will return NC 80 back. It might sound confusing but its very simple concept.

Anyways as we were nearing Kathmandu, we were able to get some awesome views of the snow capped Himalayas. It was a thrilling sight. I am uploading some pictures that we took from the plane.