November 4 – First Day In Kathmandu

Back home in London we are often woken up early by police, ambulance or fire truck sirens. Here it’s roosters, crows and workers beginning their day – and ours – at 4:00am!

The air quality is very poor here. Lots of smog from all the traffic & smoke from people burning small piles of garbage on the street. We were excited to open up the curtains to see Kathmandu & the surrounding mountains but could not see much through the haze.

We decided not to get Nepal currency at the airport last night so we had breakfast in the hotel restaurant and then headed out walking in search of a bank or ATM.

Prior to beginning this trip we watched lots of videos about Kathmandu on YouTube but nothing prepared us for the onslaught of complete & utter chaos of people, cars, motorcycles, small trucks, tractors & bicycles. There are no traffic signs, traffic lights, pedestrian crosswalks or sidewalks – it’s simply a free-for-all & you just have to dive in. Strangely it all works. Everyone respects the limited space & shares it without emotion or road rage.

I especially like the electric grid wiring.

I had our route to the bank all mapped out on my cellphone GPS but there was a fatal flaw in that plan as there were virtually no street signs & the few that were posted were in Nepalese.

After a few close calls with motorcycles we decided that our safest option was to follow close behind a mother taking her young son to school. That strategy worked well especially with Catherine following her first so the lady didn’t think she was being stalked.

After about 90 minutes of wandering through the maze of streets we finally arrived at a bank. I had to join a 30 minute lineup for service & when my turn came I was informed that I couldn’t change any money because I left my passport back at the hotel in a safety deposit box.

At this point we were tired, hungry & frustrated. We stopped at the first reasonable looking money exchange kiosk & traded our US dollars for Nepalese Rupees. With local money in hand we headed for the first cafe we could find. Two cups of Masala chai tea with MoMo dumplings & vegetable biriani did much to save the trip & our marriage.

Fully recharged & feeling confident navigating the chaos we headed back to the hotel. The walk back seemed a lot shorter until I was nearly wiped out by a load of cardboard boxes that toppled off a cargo bicycle. After traveling halfway around the world to go trekking in the Himalayas it would be ironic to be done in by a bunch of cardboard boxes filled with aluminum pots & pans.

Despite all of the chaos there are many surprising pockets of beauty that catch your eyes.

Finally back at the hotel we headed directly for the rooftop bar & I steadied my nerves with a jumbo-sized Gurkha beer. We were also treated to our first glimpse of the Himalayan mountains off in the hazy distance.

We met up with our tour group at 5:30.
The group leader is a delightful Nepalese young woman named Kalpana who has been a tour guide for 8 years. She is very attentive to everyone and really knows her stuff.

It’s a pleasant group of people, the majority are the under 30 crowd and there are a few others our age so that is good. Four people are from the UK, three from Australia, two from Germany, three from Switzerland and one American. We are the only Canadians! After introductions & an orientation talk we walked into the tourist area for a dinner. Safety in numbers with a seasoned local showing us the way. Hope the lights stay on!

Tomorrow we head out to explore the city.