To the Airport and on to Tibet Our trip to the airport to fly to Tibet was in the hands of the assistant tour guide and he was a pro. Driving a large Toyota mini-bus, he was unable to get the vehicle close enough to our hotel to pick up our baggage, so he commandeered a smaller vehicle of the street, whisked our stuff into it, and transferred it and us to the bus. That was not so impressive in itself, because he should have known that he could never get that bus in that tiny alley. What was really impressive was the way he handled the airport. The problem for him was that there was a planeload of people and baggage and only one counter where they had to file through. When we arrived, there was already a long line of people. Paying no attention to that, he positioned all of our baggage up front, went behind the counter with the officials and in a few moments was working at the front desk with a crowd around him, as he looked at and handled other people’s tickets. I have no idea what he was doing, but he looked for all the world like an official. Before we knew it, he had us at the front of the line, our baggage checked through ahead of everyone’s, and three sets of window seats on the side of the plane (left side) where Mt. Everest and the rest of the Himalayas could be seen. Of course, he applied liberal baksheesh (bribe money), but even with that, it was an amazing display of grace and power. He pushed us through the checkpoint and wished us a good trip. We were off to Tibet. We were finally on board the one-hour flight from Kathmandu to Lhasa in Tibet. There we were, in the sky over Tibet, gazing on Mt. Everest and the whole Himalayan range from the window of the plane. No stopping us now. ...back to the opening page go on to the next story...