Dalama Adventures Tale of two corporate types ditching their jobs and traveling the world for 14 months... check out all photos, blogs & interesting tid bits at http://www.dalama.net

I've been in some pretty bureaucratic airports, but I'd have to say Nepal takes the cake for king of bureaucracy.  We leave for the airport 3 hours before our flight, which in normal traffic, the ride should take about 20-30 minutes.  Lucky for us we left so early, as there were political demonstrations in the street, which blockaded traffic, and forced us to take alternative routes.  Upon arrival, all bags are screened as you enter the glass doors of the airport entry.  "Checked" baggage is wrapped and secured with a cloth strap, and "hand luggage gets reclaimed by owner after the screening.  We're then redirected from airport check-in, to the bank, to pay the exorbitant departure tax of 850 INR ($20USD) each.  We find in Nepal, that all entrance fees to exhibits, as well as this fee, is pegged to UD dollars, and while the rate in Rupees- be they Indian or Nepali rupees, was probably set a year or two ago when the USD was worth much more.  So now, with the US Dollar at an all time low value to the worlds currencies, and without having a stockpile of US dollar currency in our pockets, we pay more in Rupees than the fee actually is quoted in US Dollars.  The bank-man hands us 4 tickets a piece and sends us back to the check-in counter.  There's not a line to check-in, but there are several airline employees standing there, directing us to the open check-in counter.  We fly through check-in, and are given back two of the departure tax tickets, that today we're still not sure what to do with.  We are given more paperwork for departure, and step aside to fill it out.  We head through the immigration counter where two men are manning the booth for our line, but they seem to be more interested in checking their cell phone ring tones, and finally, without even looking at us waiting for them to stamp our passports, they abandon their post.  We move over to a long lone, with the others in our line, and finally are cleared through the checkpoint.  Thankfully we hadn't overstayed our visa - as I'm not sure what kind of process that would entail.  Once through the checkpoint, we wait in a holding tank until the flight is ready to board.  Darrin waits by the sign that reads "MEN" and I by the "LADIES".  Three more airline employees come out to tell us to all stand in the "MEN" line, that there is no other line.  Five minutes later,  another airline man comes out and scolds the group, "this is not a line."  "Here in Nepal, everything systematic, and this not systematic."  He directs the women to the "LADIES" line, condescendingly pointing out the stupid mistake that we've all made standing in the "MEN" line.  He then scolds the men who are in more of a curvy line, than straight.  "SYSTEMATIC," rings his high screechy voice.  Line man then disappears through the crowd of airline employees standing before us.  We then move forward, passing through a second bag and body screening, and I'm fully groped by the woman security screener.  Our carry on bags are then dissembled by a team of bag screening professionals (two screeners per passenger), and it's a damn good thing they have two people - as one of them found Darrin's tiny pack of 4 AAA flashlight batteries - and even though the sign at luggage check in said no wet cell batteries- displaying a large car engine battery, they were concerned he might use the batteries for a bad purpose, so one screener's job was to find it, and the others was to determine if they were truly items that shouldn't be going on.  They called over a third security guy, and finally were told to see the airline manager about how to get the batteries at a pick up station in Delhi when we landed.  We were shuttled over to the airline manager who had us fill out some additional paperwork for our batteries, slid them into a manila envelope, gave us a "luggage" tag receipt for the item, and told us to reclaim them when we land... yeah, right, like a tiny envelope is really going to make it's way back to us, when the experience we've had at Indian airports- they can't even find your lost luggage and tell you where it's at, and when it will arrive.  No big deal, we'll just get more when we land.  We finally make it down the long ramp to another "check-in" guy, who is looking for a security clearance stamp we should have on each of our carry on bag tags.  Seems as though the "stamper employee" missed our bags... so back we go to the screening team to explain how we must have slipped past the person whose only job is to stamp bag tags.  Without question, we're sent to "master stamper" and not even looking at the bags, he stamps them and passes us through.  10 minutes later we return with our stamps, the security guy clears us and our bags, and we take a seat to board our shuttle bus to the plan that's sitting on the tarmac.  There are two additional ticket screens in between us and the shuttle bus.  We clear them, and board our bus, that drives us no greater than 50 yards to our plane - NO JOKING!  We then form 2 lines to go up the metal makeshift staircase to the plane- one for MEN, one for LADIES.  We are told again, that are lines are not straight, and so we all quickly move into formation, as we're all just wanting to get on the damn plane.  We climb the steps to the plane, once again, we are patted down and our bags are disassembled, again, by four more airline employees (women for women, men for men) right there on the rolling metal staircase, 1/2 way up to the door!  Two more airline employees check our boarding passes at the door and show us to our seats.  I think our 850 INR departure tax/pp has just funded the jobs that have created this counter-productive, bureaucratic nightmare.  We're exhausted just getting through these past 3 hours, and then an unsettling thought occurs... we have three more airports/countries to deal with in less than one week before settling into South East Asia... ugh!