Kathmandu - Culture Shock

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From the moment we stepped off the plane in Kathmandu we knew we had entered an entirely different world. The airport looked as though it was a rundown warehouse that had not been renovated in at least 30 years. Our Visa was processed by an assembly line of three men with a paper and pen. There were no computers that we could see, let alone any digital screens indicating which direction you should go. There were properly a hundred taxi drivers waiting outside the airport for us yelling, "Taxi, taxi, where you go? I take you, very cheap," everywhere! We were very thankful we had booked a hotel that provided airport pickup. However, I don’t know exactly what you would call what we were picked up in. It looked like a car that was from the 60s and had never had any repairs. It was this run down white car with dents, rust and missing parts all over it, and the inside was even worse. The drive to our hotel was anything but pleasant. Most of the roads are only wide enough for one car, and well, I use the term "road" loosely. They are more like trails we would go quadding on with the occasional cement patch. And I can’t even explain the amount of beeping made by cars. Just imagine a road filled with three year olds in the driver’s seat and they all just learnt where the horn was. Well that is pretty much the streets of Kathmandu.

When we got to our hotel we were greeted by very nice men who offered us the best tea we have ever had. It is called Masala tea. It is a beverage from the Indian subcontinent made by brewing tea with a mixture of aromatic Indian spices and herbs (Wikipedia quote). So delicious! They showed us our rooms and asked if we needed a tour, guide, or porter because they could arrange it for us. We had them arrange our flight to Lukla which turned out to be $600. We had expected to pay $480 for the both of us, but "apparently" last week they raised the price and the hotel added a nice 10% service fee onto our bill, pretty much and extra $50 to call the airport and book our ticket. Alex was not very impressed by this but in the end it turned out to be easier and we have another free ride to the airport.

The number one thing on our agenda was to get a TIMS card (Trekkers Information Management System). Therefore, we decided to set out on foot to find this building. However, trying to read a Nepali map when you have no idea what is going on around you is next to impossible so we decided to hire a "rickshaw". A rickshaw is a bicycle with a double seat attached to the back of it. He told us that it would be $2 to bring us where we needed to go. He then told us that he would wait for us at the Canadian embassy and bring us to immigration where we would get our TIMS card and back to the hotel. Well, we expected to pay a bit more, maybe like $8 tops, but when he dropped us off he said, "$50 please". Now, if you’re reading this and you’ve travelled any part of Asia, you would know that taxis are VERY cheap everywhere. For example, in Bangkok, a typical meter taxi for a 3 or 4 kilometer journey would cost around a hundred baht (3 dollars)… and that’s in an air conditioned Impala. And, according to other prices around town, the fare should have been about 6 or 7 dollars. Alex and I were outraged and could not believe how much he wanted. The entire journey took less than 2 hours and he maybe biked 6km. We ended up getting him down to $14 and walked the rest of the time we were here.

Our next mission was to get all of our trekking gear. We went to a few different shops to compare prices and decided it would be best to get everything at the same place. In the end we ended up getting 2 sleeping bags, down jackets, socks, poles, thermals, pants, hats, mits, neck warmers, sunglasses, water bottles, 2 books and a map for fewer than 26000 rupees which is under $325. And that was for both mine and Alex’s things. I think we got some pretty amazing deals.

We then decided to venture off and explore the town and all I can say is, "Wow". Everything was very overwhelming and extremely intimidating. We thought that because we had already lived in Thailand for 5 months that we wouldn’t have too much of a culture shock. But Nepal is not even comparable to Thailand. The thing I found the most difficult was all the people on the streets begging for money. In Thailand the only people asking for money were people who were disabled. However, here in Nepal everyone is asking for money. Men, women, people who are disabled and even children in beaten up clothes sit along the sidewalks with their tin bowl in hopes of a few rupees (1 CAD = 79 Nepal rupees). They are all in rags, sitting beside, or sometimes in garbage (the streets are filled with garbage). The most heart breaking moment was when we saw a Nepali man giving a few children some change, there were just too many for him to give all of them some. They are all so small with such a difficult future ahead of them. However, I read in the newspaper this morning that there is a decrease in the number of people who are living in poverty in Nepal. Although, I don’t know how much of a breakthrough this is, considering that anyone who earns more than $1.50/day here isn’t classified as being in poverty.

So far, our trip to Nepal has been a mind opening experience that we’ll take with us for the rest of our lives, and we are looking forward to our journey that lies ahead (like flying to the most dangerous airport in the world tomorrow!!!).

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Comments

[Cecilia]

Very interesting Ashley and Alex. Thanks for the update.

[jamesanderson]

Kathmandu - Culture Shock
Your article is amazing and always interesting.I am always excited to read article such as exclusively fantastic about trekking.Thanks for such a great and interesting article.keep posting such a awesome articles.