Friday, May 12, 2006

Flying back to Germany and Nepal tales


On Monday i started my journey back to Germany. I was supposed to come back with Gulf Air. There were a lot of passengers at Lahore airport, most of them going for "Umrah" (religious trip to Makkah). They were getting their luggage checked just after they enter. I was also directed to get in line, but later an officer called me aside and asked me to go to the next stage without checking. The remaining process also got through easily, except for some waiting. The plane flew a little late (as usual) but got to Muscat (Oman) in time. Muscat airport was terrible. They directed us to a queue with non-transit passengers. These queues were huge in heat and humidity. We had to go through all checks that we had already gone through at our last airport. They should have maintained a separate route for transit passengers without repeat checking. From there, we changed the plane and flew to Bahrain to exchange passengers.

I sat with a Nepali boy who could speak English and Hindi. He was fun to talk with and know about Nepal and Nepalis. He told me that many people in Nepal can speak Hindi because of Indian people and movies in their country. I was surprised to know that he was married and had two daughters, one of them eight years old. He was definitely younger than me. He married a classmate in 10th class. He proudly told that it was a love marriage and his parents accepted it. He was a jewelery-maker back home and was going to Qatar to his relative to find work. He said Nepali language is similar to Hindi but i couldn't understand a word when he spoke to a passing-by Nepali. I asked him about Mao rebels. He said they were against the king and wanted democracy. He added that most Nepalis want democracy and now the king has lost most of his powers to the prime minister. There is a peace agreement for three months with the rebels.

The plane again flew late about half an hour from Bahrain but the pilot announced that we'll reach Frankfurt five minutes before scheduled. This scared me a little. The delay was caused by them counting and recounting passengers many times. One of the passengers who was supposed to get off at Bahrain didn't. They were searching for him. This had happened on my earlier flight as well. At Frankfurt, the procedure was not too complex. There weren't many passengers and the airport was almost empty. I met a Pakistani who had come to Germany for a trip, so i guided him to the train leading him to his destination.

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