Day 41 - Bangkok, Thailand to Kathmandu, Nepal

Day 41 – His.

Mostly, today we are travelling – quite a lot of this trip is travelling but I guess that’s the way the world is – we are so small and it is so big, a fair bit of time is bound to be spent on planes, trains and automobiles. In this case we are moving ourselves from Thailand to Nepal. We have four or five days in Kathmandu then I am going on the Everest thingy. The Everest thingy is what this whole trip was centred around so I am kind of excited – it’s a bucket list sort of thing. However we still have to get there and the day looks like being 10 hour-ish of sitting in airports. We set off at 5 and as we had booked a fixed price taxi from the hotel there was an element of being able to sit back and enjoy the trip involved. Well there would have been if our driver hadn’t viewed the motorway as his own private race track. We did a 100 most of the way and he used all the lanes – especially when coming round bends – we did the 45 min trip in 20 – maybe it being early helped. There is always something of a relief when we check in. I am a bit of a worrier about these things and am never really convinced we are at the right airport or we have the right flight/time until we have checked in. The security at Bangkok isn’t as tough as we are used to but the transfer through New Delhi was excruciating in the number of checks, searches and re-checks we had to undergo. It all seemed a bit silly until we heard this story – I assure you the story is true.

In Bangkok it is quite possible to buy all kinds of things – from cheap breast implants to dentures and fake degrees to illegal pets – not something I thought much about until we found out that a couple of boys (I mean men of around 20) had decided to illegally buy and transport some kind of rare monkey. The monkeys were only a few inches big and they had no problem getting them out of Bangkok through the airport security but the security at New Delhi proved too much for them. One of the lads decided he would stuff the monkey down his underpants and try to brazen it out. Of course they caught him. What was he thinking – stuffing a monkey in his knickers? Did he seriously think no one would notice the suspiciously large and writhing bulge? His mate watched his friend getting caught so he chucked his monkey in a bin – but they arrested him too. I despair of people. Still it does seem the searches were necessary and with this in mind we stood patiently in the various queues to transfer through to the Nepal flight.

The Nepal section of the flight was pretty quick – only an hour and a half – and they fed us again – two airplane meals in one day – enough for anybody. Actually, the first meal was pretty good and rated an A star plus – the second meal was appalling though.

Nepal airport is a shambolic mess designed for getting the visa fee out of the tourists. Even though tourist money is clearly the mainstay of their economy they do little to ease the transition. The officials are slow, careless and cumbersome – through friendly – as they collect the money lose bits of paper and shuffle tired groups of people from one booth to the next that they will randomly close just as you get there. Ah well, we toughed it out and made it through. Feeling a little worse for wear and following our guidebook advice we decided to take an ‘official’ taxi which cost 650 rupees (about$8). It’s a good job it was cheap as the ‘taxi’ turned out to be a beat up old delivery van with a couple of cushions thrown on the floor. The van was one step away from the great white scrap yard in the sky and kept conking out whenever we stopped. A local guy had already booked it but the driver turfed him out for us – I guess we paid over the odds. Ah well it was fixed price.

The driver ran us all over town. So, it was a good job it was cheap or I would have been worried about the meter by about half way through when he took another backstreet turning down roads that could only be described as roads in the loosest possible sense. That is they had houses on either side and a deeply rutted track filled with people, bicycles and oxen milling about. I guess it was quicker than the main road. Our driver didn’t really know where he was going and once he got near the hotel he stopped to ask directions – actually he made me ask. When he found it was the other way down a one way street he asked us if we minded walking. Sometimes you just have to embrace the experience – so walk we did. It wasn’t that far and we were soon in our room and making coffee.

Day 41 – Hers.

Any Westerner who chose Kathmandu as their first ‘adventure’ travel destination would no doubt experience severe culture shock.  What we have seen thus far is primitive even in comparison to Battambang, Cambodia.  We have been here four hours and had a major power cut (I am writing by torch light...), flooding down the main street so deep it was covering the pavements and starting to enter the shops, a beggar child following us for two blocks pleading for biscuits and a good deal of difficulty finding a shop that sold water in a sealed, clean container.  On the other hand, we have already met at the hotel and in a little alleyway, sheltering from the rain, several very friendly, chatty locals.  Our ‘deluxe’ room has no complimentary anything, no heat or air conditioning (It is quite warm during the day – but likely to be cold at night.), no kettle, no hairdryer and – at the moment, at least, no hot water. This is going to be fun.....