November 2-3 – Toronto to Kathmandu
Our plane left Toronto at 10:00am and landed in Hong Kong almost 16 hours later – at 1:00pm local time.
Catherine was seated beside a kindred spirit – a young Indo-Canadian woman from Markham on her way to a yoga retreat in Thailand. She was a yoga teacher and psychologist who taught mindfulness meditation. They talked for hours! Synchronicity at work! In total contrast I watched endless action/disaster movies.
The plane flew north over Canada and the Arctic Ocean. It was interesting to view our progress on the in-flight map.
Not much going on down below!
We had a 5 hour layover in Hong Kong and amused ourselves with cups of coffee and tea that cost 40 Hong Kong dollars each ($7.00 CDN each) while watching the world literally go by. Where were all those planes going? We couldn’t see much of the city as it was very hazy.
We left Hong Kong at 7:00 pm and arrived in Kathmandu 5-1/2 hours later. The last 2 hours were the longest and the entertainment system in our seats didn’t work so we had to be content peeking over the seats to see what other people were watching.
It was pitch black when we landed at 10:00 pm so we couldn’t see much but probably just as well. The pilot had to really stand on the brakes because the runway was very short and the plane was very long! Whew! Made it!
We managed to stumble our way through the visa process in the chaotic arrivals hall. After claiming our checked luggage we went to the public arrivals area & looked for our airport transfer person. There were dozens of men standing across the road with arrival signs for various tour groups. After fending off several attempts by independent taxi drivers to relieve us of our luggage, I resorted to shouting “ g-Adventures!” and our hosts emerged from the crowd with a small sign bearing our names! Never have we been sooooo happy to have someone say “Namaste!” to us.
We had an interesting ride through dark, smokey & bumpy streets reminiscent of India. When we arrived at the hotel, the metal gates were closed and padlocked shut so the driver had to honk the horn and flash the lights several times to wake the guard up to let us in. After checking in, the porter hoisted our suitcase on his shoulder and took us to our room. It had a bed. We were happy!