Blogs from Nepal, Asia - page 437

Friday 25/4 – Shell: We left Bangkok and caught our flight to Nepal. It was only a 3 hour flight but unfortunately we didn’t get to see the Himalayas as it was too cloudy. It was a pretty bumpy flight – a little bit nerve racking, made more so when descending through the stormy clouds there was a huge bang and a blinding flash of light. No cause for fear; only lightening hitting the plane!! We finally landed safely and instantly fell in love with Kathmandu and Nepal. As we got off the plane and were crossing the tarmac, we looked around there was an old man dressed ‘Nepali’ style sitting crossed legged in a field just watching us... Cool! A tout dragged us into a ‘taxi’ (a ’74 Toyota, no seatbelts) and drove ... read more

A rickshaw driver took us the 3 km over the Nepalese border into Birganj (the joint border town with Indian Raxaul) and in time for an early morning feed. From there, along with 12 others, we passed through Immigration and Customs with a minimum of hassles. We encountered a magnificent sunrise at 6am as we walked across the border into Nepal. Our clocks were put forward by 10 minutes. We were immediately hassled by another rickshaw driver in our efforts to get a truck all the way into Kathmandu. We were offered a 9am ride for 15Re (a buck and a half), which we stupidly knocked back, a move we were to later regret. We finally gave away the attempt at a free hitch (or even a 15Re one!) on any truck by 11am, and along ... read more