Hello Adventurers,
My trekkers and I had an amazing time exploring the Himalayas. I just returned from Nepal a few nights ago. Any of the past Of Global Interest travelers will be happy to talk to you about their trip. Please do not hesitate to contact them -- or me -- to learn more. Maybe you will be next. In four years, Of Global Interest has traveled with 18 amazing and wonderful people, ages 24 to 66. I am thankful and grateful to them and to be in this business. Thank YOU too. Happy Thanksgiving!  

My business associates and friends in Nepal are making arrangements for an Everest Expedition next spring. I am recruiting a Base Camp Support Team as part of this expedition. This is a three week trip, roughly April 25 to May 16, 04. We will stay at base camp with the climbers and learn first hand what it is like to be part of an Everest Expedition. One climber is an amputee who will attempt to be the first person to climb Everest without a foot. You can be there to cheer him on!  

I have one very interested prospect for a trip to New Zealand in March 04. Maybe NZ is on your list of places to visit too. It definitely is on mine. How about it?  

I am working on the report for the Of Global Interest Random Acts of Kindness Fund. This describes how I spent the $1,136(!) that came from donors like you. If you made a donation you will receive a copy of this report, otherwise let me know if you'd like one.  

ADVENTURE JOURNAL ANNAPURNA AND EVEREST: PART ONE

"Five Flights Home"

November 23, 2003

It was last Monday that I learned my flight from Kathmandu to Bangkok had been canceled. Royal Nepal Airlines only has two planes and both were grounded, one in Hong Kong, the other in Dubai -- technical difficulties they said. So much for getting to Bangkok and so much for my connecting flights. FIVE flights in a row had to line up: Kathmandu to Bangkok to Seoul to Los Angeles to Denver to Detroit to home! Why do I do this to myself?!  

After a struggle with the airlines, hours at the front of a long line of angry tourists, I had a new reservation booked for the next day. When I arrived for the new flight at noon with my 200 pounds of luggage (imports for the Bazaar), I learned it was delayed, not for an hour -- but for 15 hours! We would now leave at 2:50 AM the next morning. Again I would miss my connecting flight in Bangkok and the rest of my rebooked itinerary was, like before, useless. I would somehow have to fix this before 2:50 AM if I had any chance of getting home any time soon.   

The airlines took us to a five star hotel, the Everest Hotel, where we ate like royalty. Rachel from Australia, who was also on this flight, became a good friend as well as everyone else. We were stuck together and got to know each other well. Royal Nepal gave us rooms at the hotel and would have a bus ready to take us back to the airport at 1AM.   

After correcting my ticket at the airlines office downtown in Kathmandu, we had a beautiful Indian dinner at the hotel and were able to sleep a few hours and shower before the overnight flight to Bangkok.   

At 2:50 AM the flight was delayed another hour which didn't surprise anyone. One man said, "The Lord works in mysterious ways. . . and so do the Nepalese." Finally five hours later, we were safe and landed in Bangkok by 9AM Thai time. The airlines took us to ANOTHER five star hotel, the tallest in Bangkok -- 80 floors. The hotel lobby was on the 18th floor. Our room was on the 32nd.   Rachel and I had a wonderful time in Bangkok that day. She was working in Seoul and was on the same next flight as I at 10:40 PM. We managed to sleep, shop in a fashionable neighborhood, take showers and eat a gourmet dinner on the top floor of the hotel overlooking the entire city!   

By 5:30 AM Korean time the next morning, we landed in Seoul where Rachel and I went our separate ways. She went back to work teaching English, and I went to the Asiana Airlines desk. "Is there a chance I can get a (free) room for my 12 hour layover here?" I asked, looking pathetically weary and tired.   To my surprise, the answer was "Yes!" It was too easy. A car and driver met me outside and took me downtown Seoul, an hour away, to a beautiful five star hotel. Again I slept like a queen, went shopping at the mall across the street, took a luxurious hot shower with fragrant soaps and ate an amazing all-I-could-eat buffet lunch -- all paid for by the airlines! Yes!   

Next I was roaring down the tarmac, off to Los Angeles, a journey that would take over 12 hours in the sky, flying over the Pacific Ocean, cramped in one of those tiny seats. I woke up after sleeping about three hours and looked at my watch. It was 4AM. We would not arrive in Los Angeles until 10:10 that morning! UGH. I could not sleep.   

I thought the hour would never arrive. Finally we landed in Los Angeles. The line for immigration was long and slow. Thus, I proceeded to miss my connecting flight to Denver. I had to retrieve my 200 pounds of luggage and HIKE to the United ticketing desk which was one MILE away. All my luggage towered precariously a top the little luggage cart. It was a work of art. I tried to control the load and not run over any young children. The sidewalk outside was full of people waiting for transportation with their many suitcases and overly tired, cranky kids -- not an easy obstacle course for me. I was soaking wet with sweat by the time I pushed my tower up to the end of another long line of people at the ticket counter.   

Finally, it was my turn. My ticket was again rebooked on the computer, and I was lined up for the 12:45 flight to Denver. I had to take my heavy checked bags and everything else over to another long line of people for security. Soon the line came to a halt when my turn was next. Nothing was happening. The machine was "DOWN". Ugh. My flight would leave in less than 30 minutes. Waiting. Waiting. A worker said he would rush my baggage to the plane once the machine got going again. He tagged each with a big red sticker.   

I proceeded upstairs to another security check where there was again a long line of people. Finally it was my turn. The security worker had to open one of my three carry on bags and had to look through its entire contents, very slowly of course. Ugh. I explained that my flight was leaving, and she proceeded to unravel and unroll everything at an even slower pace!   

Finally, I was through security and now rushing, running, rushing, sweating, HAULING three heavy carry on bags. Like the Detroit airport, the luggage carts in Los Angeles were three dollars! Being in a hurry, I didn't know if the dollars I had, if I had any, were too crinkly for the automated machine. I didn't have time to mess around. All airports should have FREE luggage carts, darn it! I rushed to the gate, almost two miles away. There was not one soul in sight, except one woman who stood at the desk. "Are you Heather O'Neal?" she asked. Then she said, "Your plane just left."   

Again I had to rebook my now totally mangled and well worn ticket for the next flight to Denver in hopes of making my fifth and final flight from there to Detroit. Another long distance covered in this airport and more sweat. My ticket was changed one more time, possibly the most handled and reconfigured ticket in the world.   

The next flight left at 2PM, in roughly 20 minutes. It looked like I might make it. After a long trek to gate 77 with my fingers crossed, I did make it but would my luggage?   

The man next to me on the flight to Denver had a dog with him. The cage would not fit under the seat which caused a lot of consternation among the flight crew. They were scolding the poor man who looked very much like the farmer in the movie "Babe". He was from Australia and had come a long way already like me. I could feel for him. Another passenger tried to joke, saying the dog's cage wasn't a problem for him. The stewardess responded by saying, "I wasn't talking to you." So much for the friendly skies!   

Anywhere else in the world, the dog and the cage would not have been a problem. But here, this was the land of rules. It didn't matter that the plane was half empty and that that dog could have had any seat to herself and that the man and the dog had been up all night flying halfway around the world.   

I thought about the flight crew on Asiana Airlines, the Korean company I had just flown with for the last 20-plus hours. All of them were women, young, maybe in their twenties, all with smooth black hair pulled back, beautifully elegant, kind, gentile, sincere. Though they hardly spoke English, it didn't matter. In contrast, on United Airlines, the crew was mixed, men and women with long and short hair, blond and brunet and red, heavy and thin, tall and short. Like every time I come home from a long trip abroad, I was seeing America with new eyes. I was seeing rules and laws and a poor dog, a tiny Australian-born Chihuahua, who was the cause of some lengthy and unnecessary turbulence.   

The Australian tried hard to wedge the dog carrier under the seat, pushing it down hard with his boot, bending the box out of shape. Now it was stuck cockeyed and even harder to remove. The flight crew finally gave up, thank goodness, and we had a pleasant flight after that. When we finally landed in Denver, the Australian called me "mate". "Good-bye, Mate," he said.   

Now I was soon on my fifth and final flight from Denver to Detroit. No problems there. Those last two hours in the sky felt like fleeting seconds after three and four days of delays, long long layovers, super long air times and several bad movies. By midnight on Thursday, November 20, I was home on Eighth Street in Ann Arbor with my kitty-cat. 200 pounds of luggage from Nepal was also with me. At that moment life was good -- very good.  

Heather O'Neal
Of Global Interest LLC Adventure Travel
Ann Arbor, Michigan
(734) 369-3107
www.ofglobalinterest.com

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