The KTM airport

Man I slept hard last night! Some serious jet lag, but I think I’m over it now. I woke up (no alarm) at 5:00am thanks to the jet lag, and ate breakfast with my Nepali friends. I had “milk tea,” which is just hot tea with milk and sugar. It was delicious. 

Before going to the Tilganga Institute of Ophthalmology (TIO from now on because I’m lazy), I swung by the airport (which is also conveniently close to where I’m staying) to see if my bag came in today. It did not. Furthermore, the Nepali fellas at the “baggag complaints dept” desk couldn’t tell me where it was. Not because they didn’t feel like being helpful, but because they had no computer. This is a good time for me to tell you about the Kathmandu airport. It’s called Tribhuvan International Airport. You should Google it. 

After landing, our plane taxied past some weeds, dirt patches, shacks, and finally arrived at the main terminal building, which is not much more impressive. Then we exited the plane on stairs (never done that before from a big jetliner), and the Nepali heat punched me in the face. We boarded a bus, which drove us about 20 yards to the terminal building. I didn’t realize it was the terminal building at first, because A) it looked unworthy of a terminal building for an international airport and B) I assumed the bus was taking me farther away than 20 yards. Once inside the terminal, I had to do the usual customs, tourist visa, etc. Nepalis move at their own pace (which is not helped by the apparent lack of reliable electricity, computers, air conditioning, fresh air, etc that you’re used to having available in your airports), so this took some time. Then on to the baggage claim, which is one room with 2 belts and hundreds of sweaty screaming people. We all know how this turned out for me. 

Back to the “baggag complaints dept” desk. So they understandably had no way to tell me where my bag was, but fortunately I walked over to the next building and went to the Qatar Airways office. They had computers, air conditioning, and most importantly apparently a manager or someone with authority was in the room. They assured me that my bag is NOT lost, and that it is currently in Doha and scheduled to arrive in Kathmandu tomorrow morning. That makes me feel better, but I’ll believe it when I see it. 

So, with that information, hopefully I’ll have a bag tomorrow, and then fly out to Geta Eye Hospital (again, I’m lazy, so I’ll refer to this as GEH from now on) on Thursday June 7, with plans to stay until June 17.

Bonus information: everyone here has been telling me that the temperature in Geta has been reaching to 43 or 44 in the last few days. I haven’t really been that worried, until I realized they are talking Celsius. Then I still wasn’t worried because I’m not that quick with mental math when I’m jet-lagged. Then I looked it up and realized that’s 110 degrees Fahrenheit. Now I’m a bit worried. And I have to cover up because of mosquitoes, malaria, and all that business.