So good news people – we finally made it to NEPAL!!
The trip over started well with KTP and Fangy being late before we had even left Sydney. We were meant to meet at about 4PM but as a result of traffic and the like I wasn’t joined by the other two till close to 4:30. KTP & I had already wisely checked-in online but of course Alicia had ignored KTP’s reminder message, so while KTP & I headed to the front of a very short baggage drop line, Alicia positioned herself at the very end of the check-in line. Lucky for her, the guy who was checking-in our luggage asked about the other person travelling with us so Alicia managed to by-pass the long queue. Alicia will tell you this demonstrates how intelligent/efficient she is… but I’ll leave that one for you to decide.
After saying goodbye to the various loved ones that had dropped us off, we headed through to customs and eventually boarded our flight. Alicia somehow managed to injure herself doing this by walking full steam ahead straight into the seat positioned directly in front of her… good work Fangy! Flight over was relatively unremarkable. We all watched a couple of movies and then tried to get some sleep… to varying degrees of success: Alicia slept like a log for the majority of flight, I managed to kip for a few hours while KTP cursed us all with her lack of sleep.
Upon arriving to Changi airport we decided to make use of the free internet available to us before discovering that KTP had left her small cache of drugs on the plane. We then had to locate the nearest pharmacist, which actually wasn’t too difficult in the end. Once that was done we then explored parts of the airport – making use of the free x-box games and seeking out the Transit Hotel… unfortunately the Transit Hotel was slightly pricey so we headed to our gate to find a quiet piece of floor to have a quick nap. Using our handy blankets (unknowingly provided by Singapore Airlines) we ended up settling down behind a travelator and tried to catch a few Zzzz’s – Alicia was again the best sleeper out of the three of us, but we all managed to get at least a few hours rest.
Upon waking up, (after managing to scare the be-jesus out of some poor people sitting outside our gate by our sudden appearance) we went & grabbed ourselves some toasted sandwiches for breakfast and did a lil window shopping before discovering that our flight had been “re-timed” (aka delayed) by 2 hours. After much groaning we went and had a look around a few other terminals before finally boarding our flight at around about 11:00AM.
The flight to Kathmandu was long and kinda boring… and I think we started going a lil stir-crazy by the end of it… culminating in Thumb Wars; Scissors, Paper, Rock; & finally Alphabetical Market where we were all going off to get….
“Artichoke, Beeswax, Carrot, Dog, Echidna, Frog, Gargoyle, Hairy Monkey, Igloo, Jam, Kite, Lumber, Matches, Nails, Orange , Porcupine, Quince Paste, Rabbit, String, Turtle, Umbrellas, Venison, Weed (*Alicia’s Suggestion), Xylophone, Yacht & Zucchini”
Though to be honest I’m glad we didn’t as there would definitely be no room in my bag for all of this! J
As we got closer to Kathmandu we did have great views of the Himalayas (unfortunately on the other side of the plane… so we did a lot of craning of necks to attempt to get a look.) After touching down, we headed through immigration and collected our bags and took our first few steps out of the airport… to... absolute chaos.
Of course, being white, western tourists we were bombarded with about 50 million people offering to take us to a million places for “cheap”. Eventually we settled on following the guy that the policeman said was okay (not that it stopped other various people trying to solicit us!) to a random looking car… once there someone with a clipboard from the Kathmandu Guest House (our hotel) double checked we had a booking and gave us the nod to get into this random car (which stalled straight away) to take us to our hotel.
The drive to our hotel was an experience in itself – like most developing Asian countries the best way to describe the road is organized chaos. It’s literally insane – I really don’t know how anyone gets anywhere in anytime and I’m not really sure how there aren’t more accidents or pedestrians run-over… but despite its craziness it seems to work.
Our hotel is situated in Thamel, which is kinda like the tourist mecca of Kathmandu. Our hotel, the Kathmandu Guest House, is pretty much smack bang in the middle of all the action. Our room is pretty simple and the bathroom a bit of a nightmare but it more than satisfies our requirements.
After dumping all our stuff, we resisted the urge to just SLEEEEPPP and headed out into the streets of Thamel on the search for some food. We discovered very quickly that is was JUST a little bit chiller than we expected and had to layer on a few more jumpers and shirts… this does have us slightly worried for the days ahead!!
We had dinner at a place called the Thalkali (?I may have to check the spelling on this) Kitchen which was about a 5-7 min walk away from KGH and provided traditional Nepali food. We all ordered some steamed momos (sort of dumpling type thing), Cheese Pakodas (kinda like fried holumi!) and some sort of set Thali dishes (which we really have no idea what was in them). Everything was fantastically tasty, the momos and the pakodas being the highlights.
After dinner we had a lil wander around the streets but nothing major. We were all pretty bushed so headed back to the hotel for some much need sleep!
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