Day 1
Wow, what a day. Left Melbourne midnight last night, who knows how long ago that was as I
have completely lost track of the time / time zones. The flight to
Bangkok was very uneventful and managed to slip in a couple of hours
sleep.
Bangkok airport was
quite an eye opener, definitely tourist orientated, but shoppers
paradise it is. Luckily I wasn't in the market for shopping (oh it is
a sad thing to say :-( )... so I exchanged the $40 Australian that I
had for baht and managed to slip in the most wonderful massage. 600
baht and they have you sitting on those contortionist type chairs,
plug some oxygen in to your nose and for half an hour you just drift
off. Heaven .. I highly recommend it to anyone stuck at the Bangkok
airport. By sheer luck this left me with exactly enough baht to buy a
cup of coffee and a carton of smokes. No baht left, no aussie dollars
left .. perfect.
4 hours later, its time
to board the flight for Kathmandu. Still Thai Airways, but there are
many subtle differences between the international and local flights.
Had a nice prawn curry for lunch which was one of the first
differences, this was not a westernised curry and best of all you had
a full set of non plastic implements to eat with. The roll came with
real butter and the tea came with 'Coffee Mate” ... ugh .. this
is one thing that is going to take me a bit to get used to. You know
how I love my tea and Coffee Mate just doesn't do it .. might have to
develop a taste for black tea.
Kathmandu
OK .. the very first
thing. Who said it was going to be cold ? .. I know, I could have
read the stuff I have, but you know me. Its the monsoon season ! Here
is me in a jumper and tshirt and the weather is a lot closer to
Broome. After doing the standing around in long lines thing, got
through the gates and before I know it, people are coming at me from
left, right and centre. Hotels, taxi's , kids trying to grab your
bags .. I managed to find my name amongst the sea of placards and
before I could blink my bags where whisked away off to the 'taxi'.
Bags in the car, I'm told we have to wait for one more passenger and
the kids are milling around looking at me .. tip Mrs .. doh .. I've
got no local money yet but find $3 Australian in my pocket. It fell
out of my pocket as I went to hand it over and one kid grabs and
runs. The other one then spent the next ten minutes trying to get a
tip out of me. Finally our other passenger turns up and off to the
'Aloha Inn' we go.
Its hard to try and
record my first impressions of Kathmandu, it is in a valley
surrounded by small mountains, the sensory overload is amazing,
people, cars, dogs, traffic ... beeping horns, barking dogs. All the
buildings seem to be at least 3 or 4 story and none of them are what
we would call finished. Bits of rio bar sticking out everywhere, half
a wall here and there. There are no sidewalks, just dirt and mud. The
traffic is amazing .. the road rules are simple, the person who honks
the most and is the most daring wins. There are two sides to the
roads, but it really doesn't matter, bikes, cars, trucks, pedestrians
all just mingle, beep and go on their way. Its just one huge obstacle
course.
There are shops
everywhere, not shops in the Australian sense but more like stalls,
lean to type shacks in huge rows, no spaces, no lawns, no window
dressing, mechanics, next to food, next to dresses, all spilling over
each other. Roadside vendors, people selling nut mixes, limes,
garlic, vegetables, phone covers, calculators, notepads, you name it.
My room is neat and
clean, and I HAVE A SHOWER .. ok .. the water sprays every which way
but its hot and wet. I also have an air conditioner, and TV, but be
buggered if I can get the air con to work. Its not really that bad
anyway, the temperature is probably in the mid to high 20's, but its
the humidity that makes it feel worse. After a bit of a rest and the
spreading of my junk around the room, I wanted to go for a walk. I
have to say, it was a bit scary plunging myself into the throng as
there are so many roads and lanes that twist and turn and I wasn't
sure if I would find my way back. The inn is located on this huge
roundabout type thing, so I just used that as my base point and went
off in each direction. This was the start of my dream and it didn't
disappoint. Spot the foreigner and I was 'it'. I had no local money
and asked at the desk if they cashed travellers cheques. Normally
they do but they only had 4000 rupee at the moment, so they just gave
it to me and put in on my tab. Would love to see that happen in
Australia. There is a tea shop across the road and I flew across
there. I'm just dying for a cuppa. After some pointing at the menu it
was determined that I wanted tea with milk. I knew I shouldn't have
... I don't know what they do or use, but even though I'm out for new
tastes and experiences, I really really need my cuppa. I'm thinking I
need to buy a kettle and get all you lovely (suck, crawl) people from
home to send me some nice little UHT Milk's. There is no such thing
as a fridge in your room, so it needs to be those 1 serve jobs. I
might find some here, but so far all I have found are the large UHT
milks. On the bright side, the chocolate is Cadbury's and Lindt. At
least I wont starve .... I'm still a bit wary as to what I can eat
and cant eat, so until I have someone to guide me its trail mix and
choccie.