Dear All,
We have made it to Kathmandu, Nepal..finally. It became a story in itself to make it here…
Arrived at the Amman airport 3 hours prior..as our booking suggested, however at the airport the gulf air counter wasn’t open so we sat around for an hour waiting….waiting..in the end checked with the Jordanian Air counter. The lovely gentlemen at the counter promptly typed in our flight number and told us check in had already closed..huh, it was never open! We were then referred to a supervisor how spent a while taping into his computer and finally smiled and said everything was fine.phew…our luggage was checked in and we made our way to find something to eat. Found a KFC and dan ordered a chicken burger and we were asked the oddest question.. “Would you like chicken or fish sir?”..definitely odd considering we were at Kentucky fried CHICKEN. Definitely not the only time food has been entertaining in Egypt and Jordan, at one restaurant we found a menu offering “Viagra”..apparently it’s a kind of meat???? was also tempted by “tomato stew with lamp” maybe theres a genie??… and a personal favourite was “sandwishes”, it sounds much more magical than boring sandwiches.
So back to the flight..left Amman at 5pm and after a 2 hour flight we were in Bahrain. In Bahrain we made our way to the check-in desk to collect the boarding passes for our next flight at midnight. Once again the staff member taped away at his computer, looked at us and said “Your flight has been cancelled, so your on the next flight at 10am”…grr. So a surprise overnight stop was provided for by Gulf Air. They provided the transfers and hotel..however I think the hotel was were the local “ladies” collect their business…the breakfast buffet was pretty good though. We didn’t see much of Bahrain, but what we did seemed like a lot of dust and sand and hotels.
Our flight for Kathmandu left at 10am and as dan and I checked our boarding passes that were issued the day before we realised we had been placed at opposite ends of the hotel, so off again to the customer service desk. Lovely gentleman changed our seats and strangely said “think of me when you’re in these seats”…and we definitely did when we got on the plane and had been upgraded to business class!! Woohoo. Kathmandu is 4 hours from Bahrain and it the most amazing view flying past the Himalayas. It was just on sunset so the snow caps were turning pink and then we saw the mightiest mountain of all…EVEREST!!
Touched down in Kathmandu at 6pm, visas stamped and then hardly a blink from the customs official. Made it outside the airport to be met by a mass of people holding signs and yelling for taxis or rickshaws..we had a transfer booked with our hotel…as I was searching the mass of people I murmured to dan that we were staying at “Ganesh Himal”, suddenly the mass was also murmuring “Ganesh Himal” and then suddenly the mass spat out a small man in a yellow shirt who grinned and “I am Ganesh Himal driver, you come”..okie dokie.organised chaos.
However the night didn’t end there, because we didn’t arrive at the hotel till past 7 the hotel had assumed we weren’t coming and had given the hotel room away. The owner organised another hotel for us and we finally made it to a room by 8pm. Very nice hotel in the middle of the thamel area, which is the main tourist hub with lots of restaurants, shops and bars. Slept like a log.
Next morning dan wandered ahead and I met him downstairs for breakfast, however not before I met the local monkey who was wandering the hotel corridors rummaging through the rubbish bins.lol.
We have had 2 days in Kathmandu before our trek begins. We have spent the time enjoying the more comfortable weather, around 23 degrees, relaxing, wandering the shops, eating and more wandering around. Kathmandu is amazing, the people are so friendly and have the trip amazing so far. Everywhere is so colourful with bright pink saris and bright coloured prayer flags. The city is a mix of new and old and will require a few days to explore more!
We met our tour group tonight and tomorrow were having a tour of Kathmandu and then the next day we fly west of Kathmandu to Pokhara where the trek and the real fun begins. However we’ll be out of contact while on the trek so no more blog till after the 9th November.
Love lots,
Love jess xo
