Chapter 6

While Jorani continued her study of Magic after learning to fly, I began serious research on Tibet, and possible locations of the Nest plus the people there, their religion, and beliefs. The subject is extensive and not something I was going to try to do on my smartphone. Thailand is nearly 99% reliant on cell phones and WiFi for communications, as they have very few land line telephones. I had brought my laptop computer with me but had left it in the Timeless Zone until now. For serious research though, that was what I needed, and I called it to me. I did buy a small printer to download maps and other important information.

It didn’t require much research to reveal that the Chinese authorities would not be happy to have two Dragons arrive in their country, not that I was particularly worried about their happiness. Still, they could put any number of blocks in our way. They had many restrictions on where you could go, and what you could see or do there. The restrictions on visiting Tibet were extremely heavy. Additionally, it was located a very long way from the main international arrival ports in China. It is after all a huge country and travel is controlled by the government.

Tibet itself covers an equally large area. From my research, it appeared that the most promising area to begin our search for the Nest was the area around Mount Kailash. It was considered a sacred area by four religions, Hindus, Buddhist, Bons, and Jainest. While located in Tibet, it was close to the border of Nepal. It would be much easier to not only enter Nepal but to move around there, as they had fewer restrictions on movement. Additionally, many people from all over the world traveled there to climb the various mountains. Tourism was one of their main industries.

Following more study on Mount Kailash, it appeared that it was not where the Nest was located. However, something was there. Something that had drawn pilgrims from four religions there for thousands of years. To do that, it had to be powerful. Perhaps, we could learn something by going there.

To start the journey though, we would need to leave Chiang Rai and travel to Nepal. How to do that was the question? Flying was the simplest and quickest answer. Not flying ourselves but in airplanes. A little research soon provided the answer. It appeared that Thai Lion Air had daily flights out of Chiang Rai to Bangkok. From Bangkok, they also had flights to Nepal several days a week. This would get us to Nepal where we would be able to arrange to get to Mount Kailash. From there we would see what we could learn, as Tibet is also a huge place. We would just need to see where the Magic was available.

I brought all of this up to Jorani one day after we had returned from flying. After explaining how we would reach Nepal and why, I had other things to discuss with her.

“Both Nepal and Tibet are in the mountains, just as Chiang Rai is, but those mountains are at even higher elevations than Chiang Rai. The nights there can be very cold even in the summer. In the winter, the cold is deadly. We will need warm clothing for the trip there. We can buy clothes for traveling in Nepal there. We will need boots to leave here also. Fortunately, they have strong boots and warm clothes for sale here because of the cold winters they have here in the mountains,” I told her. Later that week, we went shopping for clothing and boots to wear for the trip to Nepal.

When Jorani appeared to be close to finishing Book 6, I went out to the airport here, Mae Fah Luang International Airport. It is located a few miles north of the city. I spoke with those at the Thai Lion Air offices to confirm the dates and times that they had flights to Bangkok. It turned out that they flew into the old airport, Don Muang, in Bangkok and not the new airport where I had landed on arriving in Thailand. I was also able to learn when they had flights from there to Nepal.

On returning to the house, I filled Jorani in on what I had learned. She was deep in Book 6 but wasn’t sure when she would finish it. I explained that we would need to guess, as we needed to make advanced reservations for the flight to Nepal. The following day, she told me that it would be six days before she finished. Her medallion had assured her of that last night after we’d had sex. Jorani still liked a lot of sex, and I didn’t mind at all, as she is a fantastic sex partner.

The next day, I returned to the airport and made the reservations for our flight to Bangkok on a Wednesday. I also made reservations for the flight to Nepal for the day following that, a Thursday. The flight to Don Muang was $35.00 each. It departed Chiang Rai at 7:55 PM and arrived at Don Muang at 9:20 PM that night.

Our flight, SL220, to Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan International Airport departed Don Muang’s terminal #1 at 7:00 AM the following morning. It was on a Boeing 737, and the flight was scheduled to last three hours and fifteen minutes. The cost was $422.00 per person plus a luggage charge. We wouldn’t have any baggage to check in, only some small carry-ons that we would be taking. They did take American money for the tickets.

Jorani finished Book Six on a Monday in late August. The Guardian appeared on Tuesday morning to collect the last Book and to wish us well. We went to the cinema early on Tuesday night and returned home for a night of love and sex since we would be traveling for the next few days. It was very late when we finally got to sleep, and we were worn-out.

Wednesday, we cleaned the house and sent all of our household goods and the remaining rice and other food to the Timeless Zone along with our other clothes and personal items for safekeeping. We then used a spell to clean the house and make sure that everything worked properly. The owner arrived on Wednesday afternoon, and we turned the house back to her. We had arranged for a Songthaews, what Jorani called a bahtbus, a converted pickup truck, to pick us up at 6:00 PM from in front of the cinema and take us out to the airport. We had a filling dinner previous to that. We also had with us some pastries that we had picked up at the Tourist Inn Hotel bake shop that morning and would eat overnight.

Mae Fah Luang International airport is about 8 km (5 miles) from the center of the city, so the trip didn’t take long. We were still dressed in the clothing that we normally wore here and had jackets in our small backpacks in case it was chilly on the flight, or at the airport overnight. Arriving quite early, we checked in and found seats to wait for the flight to be announced.

A number of other people, both foreigners and Thai, had arrived before our flight was announced at about 7:40 PM. After lining up and showing our boarding passes, we were led out to the plane and boarded it using the movable metal steps that had been pushed up against the fuselage of the plane. Many of the other passengers had considerable luggage, but it had been loaded already. The small plane was comfortable and wasn’t crowded for this flight.

It did get a bit chilly on the flight, and we were glad that we had brought jackets with us. We arrived at the Domestic Terminal of Don Muang International Airport in Bangkok just a bit after 9:20 that evening. The facilities there were as modern as any other major airport. It was quite a change from the airport in Chiang Rai. They had Jetway loading ramps for the larger aircraft, but our small plane wasn’t able to use them, and we disembarked just as we had loaded on the plane and needed to take the outside stairs up to the arrival hall.

The International Terminal is quite some distance from the Domestic Terminal but there is a bus that takes passengers between the two. The International Terminal is HUGE. Check in for flights is on the second level. Naturally, the check in for our flight wasn’t open at this time of the night, about 10:30 PM. However, there were a number of restaurants and other facilities available in the terminal that were open 24 hours a day.

We had a second dinner at one of the restaurants before settling in some comfortable seats in the waiting area until it was time to check in for our flight. After casting a ward around us, we napped until about 5:00 the next morning without being disturbed, as no one realized that we were there. Jorani had cast an obfuscation spell around my ward. After canceling both spells in the morning, we went for a bit of breakfast at one of the fast food outlets which was open.

Following that, we used the public restrooms to change into our traveling clothing. We had them in larger backpacks which we called to us from the Timeless Zone after finding a place to change in the restrooms. Jorani now had access to the Timeless Zone by herself and didn’t require any help from me.

The Thai Lion Air check-in-counter was open by the time that we had changed clothes and we got in line. When we reached the counter, they seemed quite surprised that we only had partly filled backpacks for our carry-ons and no other luggage. We received our boarding passes after they checked our passports and ID cards. Following checking in, we went through security, passport control, immigration, and customs. We also changed our remaining Baht into American dollars.

There was a lengthy walk to the gate, but we were still early. There were comfortable chairs to sit on as we waited. It seemed to be all that we had done since starting last night. Eventually, they started boarding the passengers for Thai Lion Air Flight SL220. The plane was a Boeing 737, so we boarded using the Jetway. The flight was only partially full so it was very comfortable. It departed on time. The flight lasted just over three hours and fifteen minutes. We arrived at Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan International Airport just after 9:00 AM local time.

On arriving, we needed to go through customs, passport control, security, and immigration for a visa. They also checked on the amount of money that you brought into the country. Jorani and I didn’t have any problems. We didn’t have any luggage, only our carry-ons with the clothing that we had worn on the flight to Bangkok. At immigration, we were able to take the green channel, as I was only carrying a thousand dollars that they could see. Jorani’s Medalion and its gold necklace were invisible to them. We also had no electronics, cameras, or film for them to inspect.

We were quickly through the incoming inspections, while others were held up having their baggage and other things inspected. I did stop at one of the money changers and changed five hundred dollars into Nepalese Rupees, but not at a bank or an ATM as they kept track of how much you changed. I got 59,500 NPR, which was a little below the current rate of exchange but was close.