The flight from Singapore to Kathmandu was pretty uneventful for the most part. I was given a sheaf of forms to fill in which kept me quiet for a while anyway. They actually make the immigration process sound rather scary. The back of the Arrival Card has a list of things to remember when in Nepal, including that no volunteer work can be done on a tourist visa. I wasn't entirely sure what to do about that so I just put 'volunteer' as my reason for visiting on my visa form, and figured they'd work it out. After all, lots of folk come to Nepal to volunteer so it's hardly unusual. Most interesting was the customs form, which stipulated you were only allowed to bring in the following:
- Used binoculars, 1 piece
- Used movie camera, video camera or steel camera, 1 piece
- Used computer, 1 set
- Used portable music system set and recorded or blank cassettes up to 10 pieces
- Used personal clothes
- Perambulator, 1 piece
- Tricycle, 1 piece
- Used fountain pen, 1. Ball pen or pencil, 1 set
- Used watch, 1 piece
- Used simple medical equipment, 1 set for doctor
- 1 set musical instrument for musician
- 1 set playing item for player
- Fishing rod
Anything other than that lot and you're supposed to declare it at customs and pay extra duty. Also, prohibited items include 'cordless telephone more than 300 meters capacity', which I'd be more worried about if I thought I'd get any signal at all on my mobile anywhere in Nepal. Well, I could go on at length about the slightly daft list of allowable items but as it turned out no one cared at all that I had too many pens, or anything else not on the list.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. The flight was uneventful until the pilot pointed out Everest could be seen out of one of the windows and there was a bit of a stampede. I suddenly realised that what I'd taken to be clouds were actually mountains. Oops. According to one of the guide books, the maxim of the pilots of Nepal is "We don't fly into clouds. In Nepal, the clouds have rocks in them". Heh.
And immigration: not scary. The terminal building feels more like a train station. There's a certain amount of queueing to get a visa, but they gave me a tourist visa anyway. Customs barely glanced at my rucksack. Outside the airport I met Michael, the guy from Volunteer Nepal, and off we set in a taxi through the streets of Kathmandu...
