Tuesday, 2 March 2010
I was not sure what to expect.
I woke up early today. Little sleep on the previous evening because my mind was focused on today which is going to be the start of something different. Anyway I figured by being tired, sleeping on the plane will be easier. So I just needed enough energy to get from Paddington to Heathrow and onto the right plane.
My preparation has been thorough. Although, I had no idea then. But no issues came out to bite me in the behind. It was so thorough that my disciplined approach of getting up at 1pm for 2 weeks in order to minimise jet lag was genius because I expected to wake up in Nepal at 7am. That was not because I was lazy in any way or form. Therefore the time difference between the UK and Nepal meant my body didn’t know a thing. And I was ready to roll on day 1.
The duration of the flight was taken up by Bollywood movies and curried flavoured mango juice. Babies were left, right, in front and behind. That was a slight exaggeration but certainly feels that way with one baby behind and one in front. So many babies. Stop-over at Delhi (the new one), and a few hours later arrived at KTM. The hour wait for the VISA was pretty annoying, but it meant I didn’t need to wait for my luggage.
At the arrivals, I was greeted with numerous strangers and Rabindra. Rabindra was my local first contact, met through the charity. My personal experience that arriving in a strange airport is often the worst experience of a trip, possibly trumped only by food poisoning, rabies, and other exotic diseases. Rabindra saved me the gang of taxi drivers and denied one of them a chunk of foreign money. Robbie as he is commonly known to foreigners was great and took me to all the major tourist sites in Kathmandu. I was dropped off at my lovely host family, the Lamas. Their youngest son, Prem was pretty much my local guide to Nepal. He studied engineering at university.
Adventures of Delboy 