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Published: November 25th 2009
Beth and I are in Kathmandu after a quite long plane journey. We left on Monday morning by catching the bus up to Sydney where we were met by Beth’s aunties, Sue and Reet. We had lunch at the airport, and after a long while we boarded the plane. We had got exit row seats which were great, and the a380 was a lot of fun in that it was such a big plane.
Beth and I had vegetarian and Hindu meals respectively, which was rather excellent. We watched a few movies that we had neglected to go see at the cinema. However, once we had arrived at the airport we had 12 hours to kill until our flight out to Kathmandu. We killed it on the free internet and by watching the second half of a bad movie in the free cinema, before checking in to the Transit hotel for 6 hours of sleep. Breakfast the next morning at Burger King was passable, and then we boarded the comparably tiny plane to take us to Kathmandu.
We landed in Kathmandu and went into the airport terminal. It was very different from Singapore Airport, being made out of red
brick and having low ceilings and being very old. We went through immigration and had our passports stamped - after realizing that we could have arrived in Nepal without a visa and bought one on arrival. Thakur picked us up from out the front, and the interesting car ride from the airport to our hotel began.
It took about half an hour or so to drive to the airport in quite a small car, twisting and turning through numerous side streets. There doesn’t seem to be a major road or thoroughfare in Kathmandu, but rather there just seems to be lots of narrow meandering roads. We took so many turns down so many small roads and alleyways that it was hard to believe that we were going in a single direction the entire time.
The roads are packed with cars and motorbikes and pedestrians, along with cyclists and rickshaw drivers. Everyone beeps along as they drive, as the narrow roads are shared by all of the above. On the drive to the hotel there were numerous times when the side mirrors nearly hit obstacles and other cars - at one point it wasn’t hit only because our car
was lower than the approaching four wheel drive.
The hotel that we’re staying at is in Thamel, the tourist district of Kathmandu. Although touristy is often considered a bad thing, I’m quite glad that we’re in the tourist district - many people speak a little English and there are so many different outdoor stores selling fake items. There are lots of foreigners about, but the conversation that we catch as we’re walking along the streets suggests that most of them don’t primarily speak English. We’re staying in the Hotel Moonlight, which is good in that we’ve got our own room, and its quiet - well away from all the noise of the streets but not too far away from the action. The air of Kathmandu is quite dusty, and there is quite a prominent haze over the town. The air feels pretty dusty in your throat, and the sun comes down on the groun d in a warm hue because of the smog. During the flight into Kathmandu we could see the Himalayas in the background, and they’re very close to Kathmandu, but in the city itself we cannot see them because they’re blanketed out by the smog.
We met Thakur, John Cianci’s friend, again yesterday afternoon to make arrangements for the hike. We’re leaving tomorrow by bus to the start of the hike. We’ve met our porter guide, who seems like a lovely man. So the plan for today is to buy some mats, and some trekking poles and a map, and to get ready and packed before the real adventure begins tomorrow. We have taken a few photos, but what we’re looking forward to is the mountain scenery tomorrow.
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Sally
non-member comment
good luck
Hey there, hope you have a fabby time on the trek! Sounds like its ok?