Day 16
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Day 16: Saturday 14th December

Goodbye to Frances, Caro, Sue, Andy, Chris; more shopping; Graham's camera walks; Kathmandu International airport security; Kathmandu to Abu Dhabi; airport shopping.

Breakfast is between 8am and 9am, at which we have to say our first goodbyes to Frances, Caro and Sue.

Slightly later departures are upstairs at reception - we lose Andy and Chris.

The rest of us - either going back to the UK or staying on longer - have a free morning in Kathmandu. I go into Thamel with Carolyn and Alison who are now on a quest to buy and to convince me to follow suit. The first things are T-shirts, with a "Yeti Yeti Yak" logo, to which they both add "Nepal" embroidered as-we-wait. Carolyn's also tempted by a singing bowl... the first shop we stop at tries for 3,100Rs, but around the corner at a stall it's a more modest 700.

Then we hit the silversmith/jewellers quarter. In the first, crammed shop, where all the jewellery is hung in glass cases but you're free to open it up and browse around, I end up browsing the lot and buying two pairs of earrings for Mum (a teardrop and a lattice) - for 450Rs!!!

We also visit the shop next door, with a selection of rings and bracelets which take Alison's fancy. I nip out to change a $5 note to keep enough for the 1,100Rs departure tax later on and bump into Alex and Sally; the money changer (sitting at the bottom of a flight of stairs) unfortunately can't count and I get 384Rs at 76.5Rs/$... but then, it's hardly a fortune.

Back at the shop, Alison has bought a ring that is currently too big - the owner tells us of some silversmiths around the corner who should be able to adjust it - but it will "cost and take time", he warns, which is worrying with our flight due this afternoon - it's now about midday.

Round the corner only one of the silversmiths he mentioned is open (the luxury one): the cost is... 50Rs, and the time... 15 mins!!! So we wait in the sunshine, and even browse the singing bowls across the way. Sure enough, the ring is soon ready, and having collected it we go for a roof-top lunch at the Bistro with Sally, Jo, and Alex - there we (eventually) get to try momos (steamed and fried)!

We try a CD shop en route back to the hotel... Dido's album is "No Angle" and there's a CD from legendary musician "Duck Wellington" (even though the scanned front covers have it right!). We don't buy (though later in the airport we find out it all works OK).

Back to the hotel; showers, packing (for the last time, sniff!) and reception for 14:45 - I forget my sunglasses and a porter (who together with the housemaids are just **so** happy, welcoming and friendly) finds them and gives them to me.

Fill out my questionnaire at reception (everyone else is far more efficient and has done theirs already); Clare is keen to see them before they go to HQ. Meanwhile, Graham and Lynn recount their experiences this morning - losing a £2,500 camera. Clare sorted out the police - no mean feat, apparently (can't be declared 'stolen' until after a few days, but we're all going back today and need a police report before we leave to claim on insurance...). It seems like the camera was taken out of Graham's camera bag - which, remarkably, was then re-zipped!

When we leave we all have to bid farewell to Jo, who is still to complete her quest to reach Calcutta (where her Mum came from) so she's staying behind in the hotel before moving on with her quest.

I finish my questionnaire on the bus to the airport, and give it, together with all my spare Rs, to Clare. She's not allowed to follow us into the terminal building (although she tentatively tries!) so we all have to bid farewell to her at the ticket check at the terminal entrance, which jams things up for a bit.

The departure tax was easy - there was a booth - a Bank - in the ticket area which sold you a purple "Passenger Service Charge" ticket for 1,100Rs. The hold luggage then travelled along an X-ray machine and got a security strap put around it.

Then we queue at the Gulf Air check-in. There are 9 of the group on this flight: Lynn, Graham, Gill, Alex, Sally, me, Alison, Carolyn and Kirby. Some of us have to change queue because the baggage labelling machine breaks down, as they tend to, as it turns out - ours is opened and fixed a few times [Boarding Pass - KAT to AUH.tif]. Carolyn's check-through to Leeds takes special effort (but appears to work...) and Alex & Sally (in the other queue) get a trainee operator. Meanwhile, the luggage piles up behind the check-in desks because the conveyor belt just isn't moving. Will we ever see our luggage again...?

Upstairs to immigration; there's a form to fill in but it's OK. Move through to the departure lounge, and out come the snacks... digestives, chocolates, and even fruit!!

Eventually (17:00) we're prompted to go through the departure gate. To get to the departure lounge you need to go through another set of security - this time for the hand luggage - and yourself. There's a seperate queue for men and women; your hand luggage gets X-rayed, and you get frisked (the women more 'thoroughly', apparently). Then a hand-search of your hand-luggage: I am questioned on my needle clipper (must have bored him into passing it), Gill loses her matches and lighter, but Alison retains her tweezers.

The departure gate... three double doors (gates '1', '2' and '3') and a big room, not quite big enough to hold the payload for a large plane. It isn't long before coaches arrive, though, and an exodus occurs - the westerners play it cool and hang back ('cept Lynn and Graham!). 

It's not quite plain sailing boarding the aircraft: we get off the bus to be presented with one (long) queue of men, and some screens on the tarmac. The women, as it turns out, are frisked (behind the screens) then put straight on the plane; the men are put through the same but no screens. The main problem with this system were women who got checked then went to talk to husbands/owners in the queue then tried to get on the plane, of course.

Aisle 28 was predominantly our group - except for Alex and Sally. "Window" seats turn out not to be.

The flight Kathmandu to Abu Dhabi includes a dinner - choose the chicken and there's accompanying green stuff with something **very** hot in it - which I eat. Aaaargh!! And the flight's hot, too.

Arrive at Abu Dhabi about 22:00. The next leg to London is due to board 01:55, so we all get confirmation that there's a free meal for us downstairs at the restaurant, and then (seeing as we're not hungry yet) try the shopping - it's brilliantly cheap. Sally buys a CD Discman having experienced Alex's - about £45! Lynn, meanwhile, gets her Christmas presents from Graham: 24 carat earrings and a ring - sold by weight: £60 total (£25 for the earrings!!!). I get a mere 2 CDs (£8 for a single album) and a new calculator (£10). Gill, though, puts us all to shame and goes wild: a whole **stack** of CDs, then lies down on the floor.

The free meal, as it turns out, is a pre-fab airline-style styrofoam affair (try and find that on the menu!), nice enough, but "filled a gap that wasn't there" as (I think) Graham put it.