It has finally come to the last day of 2009, also the last day of our stay in Nepal, a poor country with nice people.
We arrived early at the Airport, just in case anything that might cause a delay somewhere. Enough of power outage and strikes.
Our taxi was stopped when we came near the airport for a routine check, but the security guy just waved us through when he saw foreign tourists on board.
To enter the departure hall, we had to first queue up, showed our passport and air ticket. I was not too used to this as ever since the introduction of e-tickets, I seldom have my tickets on hand. After that, went through the first level of security check, which we put our check-in luggage through the x-ray machine.
Inside the departure hall, it was a bit chaotic, with no clear signs of which counter you should go to. I asked an airport staff, he kindly pointed us to the Thai Airways counter, with very short queues.
It was great that at Kathmandu airport, they also issue our onward boarding pass from Bangkok to Singapore. In contrast, Guangzhou's Baiyun airport still can't issue onward boarding pass till today. They really need to improve, man.
The immigration hall is small, with only 2-3 counters for foreigners, so it is not unexpected to see long queues.
After the immigration, we had to go through a second security check. Your hand-carry goes through the x-ray machine, you walk through the metal detector, as well as undergoing a manual body search. There are two separate queues, one for men, one for women.
After that, it is still not over yet. You have to carry your hand carry to one of the security officers and go through a manual check of your hand carry luggage. Once the officer is satisfied, he will sign on the back of your boarding pass to say ok, you can board the plane.
After that, you have to show your boarding pass to another security officer before you can enter the waiting area.
Just when you thought all that security check is over, just before you board the airplane, you still have to go through one more time body search.
This is the most tedious security check I have ever experienced in airports across the world, however, its effectiveness is very much in doubt, in my humble opinion.
You can find a complete list of blog entries about my Nepal trip here.
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