May 9: Kathmandu to Delhi, India

Our flight out to India wasn't until early afternoon, so the morning was spent relaxing, packing, and grazing over the breakfast buffet. All items had been purchased, all money spent, -- now it was just time to psych oneself up for the long trip home.

Kathmandu's airport was very familiar to us by now. Dave got us to the right departure gate, made all the necessary adjustments to the baggage and wished us farewell. We would have to go through a series of security checks and he was not allowed to follow. Waves, handshakes, kisses and promises to stay in touch and off we were into the maze of people checking in.

The security system at the airports of Nepal do not have the scanning equipment that one encounters in the Western world. Each person and bag is individually hand scanned. First it is as one enters the building, then as one gets near the gate, again as one passes through the tunnel to the plane and finally as one starts up the stairs to the plane itself. Rub-down after rub-down looking for anything sharp or pointed.

Jet Airway was our carrier again and we were all delighted. The service is excellent, even if the meals are curried laden!!

We arrived in Delhi with about six hours facing us as a layover. The tour company had arranged for hotel rooms for each of us which gave us a chance to rest before catching our 2:30am flight to Brussels. A quick dinner and then off to bed until the wake-up call at 10:30pm. We are now in a new time zone that is 15 minutes earlier than when we were in Nepal.