Kathmandu - first impressions

Day 0-1 Wellington-Kathmandu

After a Macs Brewery meal we milled around in Wellington airport, and then milled around some more in Auckland airport. In hindsight, I have shopped at Auckland duty free because the range was better and cheaper than KL.

Flight was nice and easy. To KL was on the oldest most clapped out 777 ever, complete with seat back screen from the 90's. My arm rest was held together with duct tape and the decoy seat recliner didn't do any reclining. But good leg room so I slept well.

Very short stop at KL where without knowing how much a ringitt was worth, spent FAR too much on electronics for the trip.

KL to Kathmandu was on a brand new plane but with very little legroom. I was determined not to sleep, and (mostly) succeeded.

We saw Mt Everest! Top tip, you must get a window seat on the right, on the way to Kathmandu, and on the left on the way back.

Everest (on return flight) #nofilter

Same photo with a little bit of cropping and post processing

Flying into Kathmandu through amazing, towering clouds.  Low rise brick and concrete everywhere, as far as the eye could see.

The airport 'gates' were just a big area of concrete with angle parked jets. It was hot (well, pretty warm) as we came down the air stairs and into a big bus. The terminal was old and low rise but functional enough, with a wonderful marble floor. We got into a series of long but agreeable queues, herded by Bharat who had the process nailed.

Most amazing bus trip into town.  Wow! What a place! Impressions? It's hot and sultry, high 20s and humid. Crowded and busy. But in a laid back stress free way.

The roads are amazing with pedestrians, scooters, motorbikes, little Suzuki taxis and so on all affably coexisting. No rules at all that I can tell. You just do your thing, use your horn and be ready to slow to miss other people. It works well.

It's a maze of little alleyways, just slightly more than twice the width of a Suzuki taxi, with shops on the edges and all sorts of things going on.

Take the builders from Turkey, the drivers from Bangkok, the urban planners from Middle Ages Italy and put them all in La Paz. That's what it's like.

Into the hotel to a wonderful welcome. First time that all 18 of us are in one place.

Quick freshen up and off to the Monkey Temple. Very tiring. About 1 hour to get there through chaotic alleys. All of Kathmandu seems to be chaotic alleys! I was expecting the locals to be looking for money, either selling things or begging - but none of that. We were treated with curiosity but indifference.

Tarmac, metal, mud roads. Tight with motorbikes and ubiquitous Suzuki taxis everywhere.

Up 400 steep steps. What will the trekking be like?

On the way up - plenty to see. Street sellers, beggars, stray dogs and eponymous monkeys. When I reached the top there were probably 20-30 monkeys running around with loud angry alpha males and cute little babies clinging to their mums or playing about.

Temple had a stunning view of Kathmandu - filling the whole valley and low rise ruddy brick as far as the eye could see. I've heard various figures of 3-5 million for the population but it all looks to be the same alleys and buildings everywhere.

Temple was big, imposing and crumbling. Plenty of Buddhists and Hindus too, spinning the prayer wheels and blessing themselves and lighting candles. Felt kindof similar to Montmatre in Paris, if Montmatre was alive and bustling and people were actually praying.

Back down the hill we went, down a side way that took us to another massive Buddha statue, flanked by two Hindu gurus, one of which they believe is a reincarnation of Buddha. So intertwined! Then hoe again through the chaos. Saw funeral pyres burning. Big fires in structures with open sides, roof, chimney at the top. Wow.

By now starting to understand my way around. Got dark rapidly which made it even more exciting.

Home to a great dinner at the hotel of dal, rice, chicken, poppadoms and pickle. Then quickly to bed.

Power is intermittent - we had none in the afternoon, it was back on in the evening but went off as I was emailing. Straight off to sleep.

Slept really well. So well that when the power came back on and turned all the lights on, I completely didn't notice until about 3am.

My brain woke me up at 3am and went crazy for quite a while until I was able to quiet it down and off to sleep again I went.