The first thing you see when you get out of the flight is a long narrow waiting room packed with hundreds of people, peering out through the incessant rain at the flights taking off. They wonder when their turn will come.
The crowd gathered inside this waiting lounge comprises mostly Indians and Chinese with some Europeans and Americans. Flights getting into Nepal have a hard time but as we get out of the plane two Chinese flights take off and one for Dubai.
Inside, past the deserted arrival lounge, 200 people wait in the baggage claim area, listless eyes on the conveyor belts.
Many of them are local people who have arrived from India and West Asia to visit their families. Some are from Bangladesh.
Some say they have no choice but to stay in the airport for the night. “Our families have asked us not to come home tonight as they are all sleeping in tents outside the house. They say stay at the airport since there might be more tremors,” says Anand Paneru, a government official who has just arrived from Delhi.
