When the time came, I went through the Delhi airport security, passing my film through. They are very thorough, and searched me with two metal detectors and by hand. This time, they looked at my passport. After nine hours in the airport, my Delta flight to Frankfurt boarded. Once again, the flight was half empty. They served dinner early in the flight, and I was hungry since I had only snacks since lunch. I ordered the Indian selection, which was tasty. I slept a lot on the flight, but stayed awake through the movie, which was Forrest Gump. I was sad on the flight about leaving Nepal. The flight to Frankfurt took eleven hours, arriving in the morning. We had breakfast on the plane, and I again chose the Indian selection. I had a five hour wait in the new Frankfurt airport terminal, which has comfortable lounge chairs.
The flight to Cincinatti took nine hours. I slept most of the way, but watched the movie, which was a rather forgettable romantic comedy about competing newspaper reporters, starring Nick Nolte. In Cincinatti, I had a two hour wait and went through customs. When I showed my passport, the officer asked if I was glad to be back, and I said ``not really'', since I would have preferred to stay longer. On the customs form, I had checked yes on the agricultural question, since I had food (the yak cheese), plants (the flower necklace), and I had been on numerous farms. The man at the desk only asked me what food I had. I told him I had bought some cheese, and he let me through without further inspection. I noticed when I got home that the flowers were rather buggy, so he may not have liked those. I had a pizza in the airport, since I was hungry for a real American-style pizza after all the mediocre Nepalese attempts. I also saw television for the first time in weeks. Bill Bugg, our physics department chairman, boarded the plane to Knoxville, and I said hello. After a one hour flight, I was back in Knoxville. I took a cab and arrived home at 9 PM.
I called my parents, and my mother was very happy to hear from me. She told me that my brother had been engaged in Italy while I was gone. I found all my mail in a large mailbox at the apartment complex. Among the mail was an envelope from Delta Airlines containing the tickets to Lukla I left on one of the flights. The tickets were fully refundable, and I would be able to return them to the travel agent and get my money back. I fell asleep shortly after this on the sofa, and awoke confused, thinking I was still in Nepal and wondering how all my stuff got there. I looked forward to developing my forty rolls of film. I had had a wonderful time in Nepal, and while it was great to be home, I was sorry I had to leave so soon.
Scott A. Yost, 1994. All rights reserved.