Landing in Kathmandu

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Okay, so after some painful hours in New Delhi Airport with practically no sleep at all, I got on the flight to Kathmandu. It was a very different crowd than the one on the flight from Russia to India. Here it was Tibetan Monks and very characteristic looking Himalayan people, and other travellers like me. From the plane I could see the himalayas popping up through the clouds and further down, rice fields in the mountain sides. It was all very hilly and full of mountains.
When I landed in the airport in Kathmandu (which looks nothing like the typical airport, more like a small office in reed brick walls) I had barely picked up my backpack before I was asked if I needed a place to stay. I hadn't got any sleep for roughly 30 hours or so, so I was not very picky. I had a feeling it would be pricey this way, but when the guy asked me what kind of hotel I was having in mind, I said "just my own room with a hot shower and electricity" and he asked me if 20 dollars would be okay for me. That is a cheap price, retrospectively, as the instant I said yes, there was 3 people around me, escorting me outside with my bags to a car that would drive me to and ATM and the Hotel. Outside the airport there was a whole array of people standing just looking at the people coming off the plane. In the horizon I could see Kathmandu in a misty, sunny fog with a medieval look to the buildings.

I was a bit paranoid in my no-sleep-in-a-new-place state of mind when they took my bags in the trunk of the car and drove me off to somewhere totally unknown to me. The first thing that shocked me was the traffic! It is just an intuitively pushing forward and braking when something or someone comes in your way, then honking the horn and pushing forward. Motorbikes, bike-taxis ("Nepali Helicopters"), people on foot with various goods on their backs and necks, bikes and children playing on the street - only moving by the honking horn.
I tried to ask these people in the car, driving me like it was their usual task, what was about to happen and all and this little fella sitting next to me with a distinct asian look was smiling and being very friendly and calm, seeming very genuine. He told me he was having this job of escorting tourists around, he left his rural home where he grew up and went to Kathmandu as 6-year old to earn money for his family. We had a long talk and I told him I would like some native person to escort me to the mountains to be translator and all, and we made a little agreement on this.
Long story short, as I have to leave for sightseeing in Kathmandu in half an hour, is that I got into a hotel room which was quite nice and just what I needed for the time being, as I just wanted sleep. Beg, as my new friend from the car is called (not like Begger, ironically it could be, it means Early One in Nepali) and I planned on seeing each other the next day and I wanted him to take me to a place where local people in Kathmandu will eat, and we had a very nice meal there consisting of various small dishes of vegetables and spices and rice. We had some distilled alcoholic beverage to the side, I don't remember its name.
Everything is extremely cheap here. Like 1-2 dollars for a meal with everything on a restaurant and a danish girl I met on the Hotel (she's actually born like 5 km from my birthplace, very strange!) told me she lives for 1 or 2 danish kroner (50 cent) a day at her hostel.
Beg arranged for me a good price for a trek to Annapurna and Pokhara, with a very friendly guy called Ambi, I am going there tomorrow. It will be 10-14 days as Beg has arranged for me to come to his parents place in the country near Pokhara, he told me I can stay there as long as I want. There is also a chance I can meet some shamans from his village. I am very excited! Right about now I am going sightseeing with Beg and the Danish girl (Emilie) in Kathmandu, seeing all the temples. I got my travel insurance so everything will be in place for the trek tomorrow. This is just what I wished for, now I'm getting it!

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