The Flight and the beginning

SDL — Sat, 14 Aug 2004 18:56:00 GMT

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.

Melbourne

SDL — Sat, 14 Aug 2004 18:47:00 GMT

Seeing as I haven't had a reliable net connection this is the first chance I've had to update the blog. I love Melbourne !! What a beautiful city. Hotel Bakpak was my first venture into the backpackers scene and even though I nearly ran out of there when I first saw the room, I'm glad I stayed. It ended up being a great time. Met so many interesting and lovely people. Special mention has to go to Mel who manages the bar there and Ash and Cat. I know I said I was going to get some sleep in Melbourne and I did manage to fit in a couple of hours :-)

The first day I found the markets which where just around the corner, its a good thing I couldn't fit anymore into the pack. After a memorable morning, I had a bit of a nap in the arvo and went down to the 'Roo Bar' in the evening. By the end of the night we had some good chatting going on and no-one wanted to go back to their rooms, so it was off to the next bar down the road that was still open. Its 4am and they kick us out, so where theres a will theres a way and sure enough further down the road theres another bar open. I met a lovely girl Jenny that night from Scotland and she's got me lined up to do the best caleigh when I when I get there. Edsell is apparently the place to go and I got the low down on 'What is really under the kilts' ... sounds alright too.

On Friday, after getting some memory for the mac ( it was a hard sell, but I went with an extra 512 instead of 256 .. she runs like a dream now) I met up with David K who very kindly took me out for dinner at Lygon St, it was beautiful, and another small world story. Our waiter brings out the wine list and as usual I just cant help myself and put in a plug for our wonderful MR wines and ask why theres none on the list. He agrees with me and asks if I've ever heard of the Moss wines over in WA. Of course I have, we were at their winery a week ago and I just polished off a bottle of their yummy sem sav before my trip (it was one of the 3 I HAD to finish) and it turns out that the Moss'es are his grandparents. Anyways, after dinner its off to the Casino. A casino is a casino is a casino ... says the world weary traveller ... but its certainly bigger than Burswood and the water features in the lobby are beautiful. It was a lovely night and David dropped me back about 1ish. As I was walking into the lobby of the backpackers, some lady was looking for a place to get a coffee, so I went for a walk down the corner with her to show her, and as I get to the corner a whole group of people from last night are hopping into a taxi, lots of arm twisting went on as they said hop in ... and down the road we went to this great bar. I cant remember the name but the DJ was doing retro sort of stuff and everyone was just having a ball. When they closed, we went back to Mel's place which was not far around the corner and they have a CD collection to die for. Whoops, was meant to meet David for shopping at lunch time and didn't wake up till 1.30. Took Saturday night a tad easier and managed to get to bed at a semi reasonable hour. On Sunday I went out to Croyden to meet Shaz and spent the morning having a good girls chat and swapping photos. Was going to check out the Camberwell markets on the way back, but it was pouring and the train was doing its thing to me and had me nodding off.

Monday was off to Bridge Rd, this is a long road totally given over to clothes shops. I displayed the greatest willpower ever and only bought shirts for the boys. This was not an easy thing I tell you. This road is designed to tempt even the non shoppers.

Tuesday being the last day, I clocked up a few more k's on foot, did the bank and things I had to do, eg. Washing etc .. and repacked the pack. It's still bloody heavy (found out its 19.1kg at the airport) and I still have bugger all in it.

Well, that was Melbourne .. plenty of walking, plenty of talking, plenty of drinking and plenty of memories. Hotel Bakpak will never be forgotten !!