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If experiences are mostly informed by expectations, as Ask the Pilot proposes, then I can’t say I was disappointed by the Biratnagar airport. After a week of Jeeping east from Kathmandu across the Terai (the lowlands along the India border) in choking heat and enduring roadblock shakedowns, running sewage, bugs, stench, mild dysentery and other discomforts, I assumed the airport would hardly be deluxe. Even so, I had failed to fully imagine the dirt and squalor that passes for an airport in Nepal’s second largest city. Cramped, filthy, no food and one “bathroom” stall, an overflowing hole in the floor with no door. It made for a long day as we waited for a flight that never arrived due to Himalayan fog. We returned the next day to clear weather and a modest wait. Air Nepal is said to have the best pilots in the world, trained to fly in all mountain conditions. Whether or not that is still true, I was more than amply rewarded by my one and only sighting of Mt. Everest, glistening in the sunshine to our north, complete with jet plume streaming from its summit. Who cares if the airport stinks?
