The Long Trip Home - Day 14

 Our trip to Nepal was drawing to a close, and only a few things left now before we were home in our own bed. Ann and I decided to take everyone out for dinner on our final night. We found a little eatery, a short walk from the hotel and after checking they had visa card facilities we decided on that for our last dinner together. We all ordered our drinks and meals and soon we were presented with our meals. Surprisingly, none of us had any after effect of any food we ate during our trip Considering the basic facilities at some of the places we ate, we thought that was pretty good. After all the Nepali people generally take a lot of pride in their appearance and cleanliness. Peter and I ordered chicken dishes, whilst Ann ordered a pork dish, Michael a fish dish and Zelda had some kind of bread dish that I cant remember. Peter had commented on how tasty his meal was and I tried a bit and it definitely was, compared to my Pad Thai. Mine was gluggy and not like the Pad Thai  I have had in the past. Meals all done and dusted we decided to splurge and have a couple of scoops of ice cream for dessert. To hell with our diets and live it up for once.,We squared up the bill after several attempts to get the EFTPOS machine to work and said our good night's and made plans for breakfast.

Around midnight, I woke up with a terrible stomach ache and headed straight to the toilet. I wont go into detail but it wasn't good. At 2.30 AM it happened again, and again at 4.40AM. When we travel, we take a travel first aid kit with us that has all the gear for just such an emergency. I didn't wake Ann to find the kit until later and that was my first mistake. We  were leaving in 5 hours for the airport and I felt like death warmed up. Just the thought of breakfast made my stomach churn, so I stayed in bed while Ann went and had Breakfast with the rest. It was there she found out that Peter had suffered the same fate as me. It appears chicken was our downfall. Zelda had been to the local hospital pharmacy to get drugs for Peter, and Ann had already been dosing me up. I was wondering if I was going to be fit to travel. Ann had to pack the remaining bags by herself, although I had packed up two the day before hand. We headed down to pay our bill for the hotel and our trip to the Airport.

Everyone was down there waiting for us, we took photos and said our goodbyes. Our taxi to the airport was booked for 11.30 AM and in true Nepali form he was there at 11.00 AM. It was hard to say goodbye, as it felt like we just got there but we will be riding again soon is some other foreign country, Maybe Africa, Morocco, or even Mongolia, who knows where we will end up.

With our bags packed in out Suzuki Alto cab it was out and into the traffic for our trip to the airport. The traffic seemed unusually busy today with one section of our trip not moving for around 10 minutes. I was beginning to wonder if we would make it to the airport on time. We eventually arrived to see a massive crowd outside the departures gates. Oh Sh!t are we going to even get to the gate at all? We gave the taxi driver 1000 rs (around $10) for our trip and he was going to give us change. We told him to keep it and he was most appreciative.

Tip No 12. The International Airport at Nepal does not allocate departure areas until 2 hours beforehand. It takes 45 minutes to get through the security, check your baggage and into the lounge.

We waited for 30 minute for the departure area allocation and once announced headed in to check in. You have to go through security to even enter the airport, hence the huge crowd outside. Now it was a waiting game for the boarding. The minutes seemed like hours and my stomach was still rumbling. My diet for the next day was going to be food like dry toast, rice and potato chips, and as I didn't have breakfast I was getting real hungry. I had 450 rs left and found a shop in the airport and bought a back of potato chips for 150 rs. They went down pretty quickly so I spent the rest of the Nepali money on cheese and onion flavoured  chips. We finally boarded the plane and eventually took off for our 5 hour flight to Singapore. 

For the first time ever we boarded a Singapore Airlines plane that had no TV monitors, music or in-flight entertainment. We did get a meal, however it was a choice of fish or chicken. I have this phobia about eating fish on a plane, and in my current condition, chicken wasn't looking good either, Even so I settled for the chicken as it had pasta and I have been hanging out for pasta for so long since we have been on our diets to reduce cholesterol. Ann had a fish curry with rice, so basically I ate the pasta and Rice and Ann ate the fish and chicken. In the seat behind us was a woman and her young child, a girl around 3 or 4. She was playing a game on her mothers phone and jibbering away the whole time, It wasn't quiet and with the lights down most people were trying to sleep. Well everyone except us. We couldn't sleep because the jibbering was very loud and mother didn't seem to care, Then the seat kicking started and it wasn't one seat, it was both of our seats. Even after asking the mother to stop her child it continued. That 5  hour trip seemed longer than the trip from Adelaide to Kathmandu. We were so glad to finally arrive at Singapore, and as we were late arriving we were concerned our baggage may not make the transfer in time. We only had  a 1 hour transfer time, and also had to get from Terminal 2 to Terminal 3, Thank god for travelators and transfer trains. Through more security and finally in the departure lounge we were soon on our way home.

I can tell you that travelling when you feel ill from food poisoning isn't fun and I highly recommend investigating a travel first aid kit. Ours has been invaluable and we have it checked and restocked every time we travel. The trip from Singapore to Adelaide went very quickly and flying through the night certainly helped the time to pass.

Arriving at Adelaide we did a little duty free shopping and headed out through customs and quarantine.

Tip No 13.  Do your duty free shopping when you return to Australia  unless you can't get the item here. It saves on baggage weight and is so much easier to manage.

With our 2.25 litres of duty free grog in our hands we  went through the self-serve passport check and into collect baggage. I noticed 2 other international flights had arrived at the airport and most of those passengers were still clearing the border security. It was going to be a long wait. The queue snaked around the baggage area and some people were getting aggravated with the wait. We had a few boxes ticked and were expecting some delays anyway so we were prepared for it. After all we live in a rural area and we do care about what happens to our livestock and biodiversity. Out of all our declarations, my kukri knives seemed to be the biggest concern and all of our luggage was x-rayed before they were taken out and inspected. With them cleared we now had to go quarantine  for the other issues such as wood products, animal, products such as leathers, and being in the jungle or farm environments. I guess our previous declarations and travels helped as we were quickly out of quarantine and on our way to the car to go home. 

An hour and a half later we were home and getting cuddles from the horses and donkey. The dogs and geese were going crazy and our house sitters were ready to greet us with coffee and sangas. It was great to be home after another great motorcycling experience, and tumultuous 24 hours. It was only a 2 week holiday, but we live a lifetime experience in those two weeks.