I slept intermittently. You can never go deeply asleep when you know you have to be up early to get a flight. The alarm went off at 6am, I had a good breakfast and was delivered safely to the airport to brave the chaos again. Having officially entered Thailand I had to pay the 700 baht departure tax, which was a bit of a nuisance seeing as I’d only been in the country for 9 hours. I wandered all through the airport on the way to my gate and after another well fed flight with Thai found myself in Kathmandu.
Everything went down a notch again and the chaos was worse, the terminal tattier and everything less efficient. I managed to get my visa okay and they were quite surprised that I was only staying for less than a day. Who'd want to stay here for longer, I thought of saying. I ignored the Customs Declaration, which said I could only bring 1 camera into the country and I had 2. These things never really mean much in third world countries and I would give myself a heap of trouble if I declared both cameras. Predictably I sailed through and they didn’t even look at my duly filled in form.
Outside the seething hordes were held back by a flimsy railing but as soon as you crossed the road you ran the gauntlet of the taxi and hotel touts. In the chaos there was no one obvious to meet me. Finally, having deterred half the taxi drivers in Kathmandu I spotted a man waving a small inconspicuous sign saying ‘World’ but no reference to ‘Expeditions’. Talk about hunt for your reception committee! I was told to wait in the sun whilst the hotel vehicle was summoned. I wished I had my hat as it was HOT! I had anticipated that Nepal would be chilly at this time of the year and had come cold weather equipped. After my recent experiences in the UK and Melbourne I was not going to be caught short of a jumper here. Instead it looks like I’ll be living in my sole pair of lightweight pants and 3 t-shirts with my thermal underwear, hat and gloves packed away in my suitcase! I didn’t bring my walking sandals so it’s going to be my boots and sweaty socks for 2 weeks!
I am staying at the Radisson, a 5* hotel supposedly but the rating has been done by the Nepalis. I suppose it is good quality to them but seriously on the world stage it is more like 3*. I tried to have a sleep but the bed and pillow are rock hard – oh dear! I’ve only been here 2 hours and already there have been 2 power blackouts – welcome to a third world country! I could walk into Thamel for dinner but I’m not that hungry so will get a snack at the hotel and an early night. It takes 18 mins to walk into Thamel but an hour to drive because of the traffic. All the roads are really narrow and the traffic chaotic. “There are no road rules here,” our driver announced on the way in from the airport. I’ll brave the city when I return from Bhutan.
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