Arrival in Kathmandu

March 25th, 2009 by Elizabeth Kruithof

Well, after a bit of a whirlwind day in downtown Hong Kong with Andy (getting soaked by the rain and probably drinking too much coffee), I took the train (like a sky-train) back to the HK airport. I had a good flight to into Nepal, where almost half the people on the flight looked like tourists (much different than the HK flight), which was somehow comforting. I think I even snuck in an hour of sleep on this flight.

We arrived at Tribuhvan airport in Kathmandu and after filling out paperwork and getting Visa’s, etc (no computers in this airport!) I was met by a man yelling my name as I exited the airport with my big backpack. I jumped in to a tiny car with a taxi drive who would take me to Hotel Tradition. I think they drive on the left side of the road…but I can’t be sure because it seemed more like vehicles just drive head-on at each other until one honks, one flahses their high beams, and one finally swerves out of the way. Roads are narrow (and not even obviously roads at all…), and I had to be impressed at how perilously close the driver could come to other cars/motorcycles/people/stray dogs without hitting any of them.

I got to my room on the fifth floor at Hotel Tradition, where I was happy to let part of my backpack explode and finally fall in to a hard (but welcome) bed. I was met this morning by a couple volunteers who started working here in previous months and followed them out in to Thamel (the tourist center of Kathmandu). Right now I think it’s all too overwhelming for me to possibly try to describe it! I think I’ll use the camera for that (at least for now). I better be off to follow the other volunteers (or else there’s a good chance I’ll never find the way back again).