Sunday April 12th, 1987
After weeks of worrying, I woke up this morning feeling much calmer. I tried not to think of what I was actually going to do too much!
The morning was spent polishing the floor at Studio One, the hairdressing salon, with Dad. Hardly a romantic start to my dream holiday, but it helped to take my mind off the afternoon. John wished me luck and said how brave I was, a view echoed by almost everyone I had told.
I was worried about the weather for some reason; I'd had a vision of sitting all alone at the airport with the rain pouring down outside. It couldn't have been further from the truth!
When we got home, there were two hours of frenzied packing, and I tried to remember all of the things I'd forgotten (including my international health certificate). I didn't feel at all ready to go when the time came to leave, and spent most of the journey searching through my luggage. I must have checked my passport and tickets a dozen times!
It was while searching for forgotten items that I couldn't find my passport photographs, which were vital for my trekking permit and couldn't be obtained in Kathmandu (they were actually hiding behind my travellers' cheques all the time, and I only found them when I was in Nepal!). Dad went mad and said I was hopeless. What else had I forgotten? I relaxed anyway, thinking I'd have no trouble getting the photographs at Heathrow.
Soon, we saw signs for Heathrow International Airport and my stomach flipped over! We parked the car and walked to Terminal 3, amidst crowds of people. Inside the terminal, I parked Mum on a seat with my luggage and went to find the PIA check-in desk. Next up was to find a photo booth, which was about half a mile away in the underground station!
On our return, we found that Jane (a close friend) and her family had arrived. They were excited and said they'd seen a PIA plane land. They assured me it looked safe!
I still had a long time to go before check-in, so we sat and watched the other passengers. The green luggage labels of PIA were everywhere!
When the time came to check in, I saw two men dressed in breeches and walking boots; they looked like they were heading to Kathmandu like me. I started to feel better, and Mum looked visibly relieved as well. Jane and co went up to the car park roof while we had something to eat. We saw the two Kathmandu-ish men, and they seemed pretty normal (I later found out they were called Doug and Derek, were attempting to get to Lhasa in Tibet by bicycle, and became firm friends!).
 |
| My parents |
I spent an enjoyable half hour watching Jane and her family jumping about on the roof, while Dad talked to a friend he'd met who was seeing his brother off to India.
At 6pm, my flight number began to flash on the screens, and all the goodbyes began. It was sad, but I felt happy and excited at the same time. It felt great to walk down to passport control by myself! I turned around and waved to everyone, and then I was alone.
My bag was searched first, probably due to my stereo or scissors. I walked along a long, bright corridor to the huge PIA 747. My fears of being all along were unfounded. The evening sun shone on the plane, and the sky was clear. I took a photograph of the aircraft as it looked so beautiful against the sun, plus I'd never been on a Jumbo Jet before.
I found my seat easily and discovered I was sitting next to a girl travelling on her own to Dubai. Up until now, I had no idea we were stopping off in Dubai, but nonetheless, I was delighted. The two Kathmandu-ish men were sitting behind us, and when I turned around to talk to them, I found that they were cycling to Lhasa and would be away for seven weeks! How I envied them!
We were nearly an hour late taking off and queued to get onto the runway behind Concorde, which took off just before us. It was a beautiful sight. The cabin crew gave us lemonade to drink and newspapers to read, and I tried not to think about the approaching take-off.
We finally left at 7.30pm and flew off into the sunset. I relaxed and chatted to my neighbour. We were served chicken for dinner, and the meal was delicious. Sleep, I'm sorry to say, was impossible, but a film was switched on after we'd eaten. It was awful and called "The Wild Pony"! I listened through the headphones but kept my eyes shut.
It grew dark outside, and after the film, the lights were dimmed and the shutters brought down to cover the windows.
No comments:
Post a Comment