First Impressions of Kathmandu

The Himalayas out the airplane window

We knew we were nearly there when we looked out the window and saw the Himalayas!   

Baker helps us pack

Our first impression of Kathmandu was presented to us by the old fashioned redbrick airport with a runway that was chipped, cracked and in dire need of some repair. It felt as if we were transported back to the 1950s and this feeling grew even stronger when Katt and I watched someone light up a cigarette at the luggage carousel. While waiting for our luggage it dawned upon me that there was a high possibility that my luggage was not on board the airplane because in Doha our luggage went onto the plane together and in Kathmandu Katt’s luggage was first off the luggage truck and mine was dead last. It worried me enough to jump up and down for joy when I saw the familiar “T” for Tolley taped onto the bottom of my blue bag appear from underneath the hanging strips of rubber.

Next it was through the security-less baggage check and onto the money exchange. Considering the exchange ratio is 80:1 we ended up with a huge wad of rupee notes; 60,000 rupees to be exact. We felt like a very rich couple up until the point we went to catch a taxi and it was 500 rupees for a taxi trip to our hostel.

During the taxi ride we saw what Kathmandu had to offer. Busy and narrow side streets, no traffic lights, people arc welding with sparks flying everywhere and people hovering around little fires on street corners, store front shops everywhere, herds of cows eating garbage and lots of people riding bicycles and motorbikes everywhere.

First sight of Kathmandu

We really lucked out with our taxi driver because this guy knows everybody that there is to know in Kathmandu apparently. The taxi driver was very friendly but also very pushy when it came to wanting to introduce us to all of his business associates. For example, he kept on asking us to drop out of our pre arranged hostel and stay at a hotel that he is supposedly the executive director of. He also showed us a nice restaurant where we had very yummy food but were interrupted by him bringing one of his business associates to talk to us about packaged tours. In the end we decided to stay at the hostel we had already arranged and were thankful for his kind hospitality. We might just take his friend up on his offer to go on a couple of tours. We’ll see. Stay tuned ;)

-P.S. We have not yet seen a Yeti.