Departure Board (in Thai) , Bangkok Airport, Thailand
It’s been 24 hours since I left Colorado and already everything is different.
With each airport along the way, less English is spoken, and other languages surround me. At Denver International I heard a little Spanish. At the LAX international terminal, I heard Thai, Mandarin, and a few I could not name. Here in the Bangkok airport, English has faded even further and I can’t begin to name dozen languages that float around me here in the busy food court.
I have been to Bangkok airport a few times before; it is an interesting place. At 6 AM today, I picked out a cold coconut from the food court display case, and watched the young man slice the top off with one authoritative *thwack* of his knife. He stuck a red plastic straw through the raw opening and I had my morning coconut juice.
My favorite part of the Bangkok airport is the Flight Departure board. As a crossroad in Asia, there are always flights going to unusual locales. Before 9AM there are flights to Singapore and Abu Dabi. Around noon a plane departs for Kolkata and Kunming. As the day wears on, the destinations seem to get stranger – the 1PM departure is to Ashkhabad, followed immediately by a plane bound for Savannakhet. Better be ready for new experiences when you jump on one of those flights.
Those exotic places beckon me. I wish I had the time, and enough Bhat – Thai money – to visit them all. I know I will never see them all, but maybe I’ll be lucky enough in this life to visit a few. For now though, Nepal is enough. More than enough. My flight leaves soon.
When I step off the plane in Kathmandu, Nepal in about 6 hours, I will smile when I hear those first words of friendly Nepali: “Namaste!” There are various interpretations of this oft used word. It is a standard Hello and Goodbye greeting, but it has much deeper meanings. My favorite interpretation of Namaste is “The God within me, salutes the God within you”.
One more stroll through the food court and a final wistful glance at the tempting Departure Board. No more daydreaming now. I’m off to climb a very big mountain – I need to focus. As my expedition partner, Rodney, says: “Time to get your game face on”.
There’s my flight: Thai Airways flight 319 to Kathmandu. It leaves at 10:35 Am – I had better get to the gate.
Kathmandu is calling.
Trying to climb Cho Oyu (pronounced “Choy-U”) has been my dream for many years. After a lot of work, saving and sacrifice, I have positioned myself to try and grasp that dream. The effort and sacrifice have come not just from me, but from my wife and my children as well - life may be a bit harder and busier for them while I’m on the mountain. My colleagues have helped wrap up piles of work as I rush out of town and then will forge ahead without me as I become very hard to reach for the next seven weeks. My long time friends and valued climbing partners have cheered me on and assisted in getting me ready.