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We flew Royal Nepal Airlines from Malaysia to Kathmandu. It was an unusual airline experience. First of all, the plane was full of Nepali men who we think have been working in Malaysia in construction. I was one of two females on the plane. The men were all checking  in identical flat screen TVs about the size of a small home cinema. We’re not sure if they all wanted to bring fancy TVs home for their family/village, or whether they were going to sell them. All the men were dressed up in their best Western gear - baseball caps and jeans are popular, as are fake leather jackets and Tshirts with pictures of Jessica Simpson or Mariah Carey printed on them.

The airline had some ridiculous policy of making everyone wrap their check in luggage in secure plastic wrap (and pay for the privilege) - a complete waste of time and money.

We slept through most of the flight, as it was a very early start, waking up at intervals to be served food and drink. We had an unusual breakfast of lamb meatballs and grilled fish, then they plied the whole plane with beer and whiskey for the last two hours. The men all got a bit tipsy and when I went to the toilet they all stared at me for some reason (whereas they hadn’t so much as looked at me before). Unnerving.

The air stewardesses are all in their forties and look like schoolteachers who have been teaching for too long. You can see why when they have to discipline the men constantly - one stewardess hit a guy on the head for continuing to talk on his mobile phone when already on the plane, and he ignored her completely.

When you arrive in Kathmandu you have to apply for a 60 day tourist visa which costs USD30 per person. Bring a passport photo along for your visa application. The process is fairly painless and straightforward, but be sure to check the date that your visa expires, as they are very strict on this. The last time we came to Nepal the official wrote down the wrong date and I got into a lot of trouble at departure time even though it wasn’t my fault.

All the men with the gigantic big screen TVs got to walk through the green lane without any hassles, but they stopped us with our two relatively small boxes of medications. The customs officials then had a minor hissy fit when they saw syringes in one of the boxes when it was being Xrayed. Suddenly they all converged and looked very serious, and demanded to know what was going on. I gave them my paperwork with a letter from Michael explaining what the meds were for, a list of what I was carrying, and my medical registration certificate and medical degree.

One of the officials opened one of my boxes carefully with a razor blade, and they all had a look inside. I took out boxes of Gastrolyte, Metronidazole and Paracetamol for them to inspect. “These are antibiotics”, I said, pointing to the Metronidazole. “For diarrhoea”.

“You have a placement here?” one of them asked me.

I replied in the affirmative, and he looked at the Metronidazole. “These are for the children?”

“Yes”, I said.

“Where?”

I told him I would be in Gundu, and he smiled gravely, putting the medicines back. “Thank you, you can go”, he said, and they waved us off.

So my medicines are here safe in Kathmandu, having made it through two sets of customs. It helps to have official looking paperwork, and as much as possible, as the officials get a glazed look in their eyes when they look through my documents!