The journey to Kathmandu was a long, hot and dusty ride in a bus for two days. Our bus was supposed to be air-conditioned, but all that we had for cooling was open windows, and a couple of fans that were attached to the walls of the bus. Of course, ours didn’t work! The bus ride was so bumpy that we had to learn to read the words in our books while they were bouncing up and down in front of us. We were still not feeling particularly hungry, since the episode in Jaipur, so we survived on loaf of bread for the two days, and as much cold water as we could find. We had some interesting bus companions. There was a group of Japanese tourists, some Irish girls and three English backpackers who looked very strange indeed. Probably the best description of what they looked like is ‘inbred’.
We crossed the border into Nepal at the end of the first day. As we walked towards the border, people hassled us to change our Indian currency for Nepali currency. We decided to change a little bit of money, so we could buy cold drinks on the drive the next day. The exchange rate was shocking, but we expected that. Once we had crossed the border and paid the Indian officials the money they demanded (there is no official departure fee, so it was probably for their beer or cigarettes), we arrived in Nepal! There was not much security on the border, I think people could easily slip through without anyone noticing.
We felt the difference between the two countries immediately. The officials in the immigration office told us, ‘ladies first’, which shocked us immensely having just come from India. Everyone from the bus started exchanging stories about their experiences in India. We felt like refugees who had just escaped from a war zone, and were finally safe again. We were taken to a little hostel, with tiny rooms and putrid toilets, but we were so happy to finally be in a friendly country again, that we didn’t care a bit.
The next morning we were hurried onto the bus again, to spend another day on the road. The bus that they gave us this day was similar to the other bus, except that every few kilometers, the bus would stop and pick up local people. After a few stops, the bus was packed full of people. Many of them had to stand or sit on any surface they could find. Once the bus was completely full, they started to fill up the space on the roof. People ride on the roofs of buses everywhere in Nepal. Artur even saw a bus with a cow riding on top! We have no idea how they got it up there.
We were surprised at the size of Kathmandu when we arrived. It seemed to be very spread out but still packed full of people. The streets were congested with traffic, and people wander amongst the cars and rickshaws. Many of the women wore saris and salwar kameez, like the Indian women, but they were not as colour coordinated as the Indian women.
Thamel - Tourist Village
When our bus finally stopped, we took a taxi to Thamel, which is the tourist town in the centre of Kathmandu. All of the backpacker hostels and hotels are located here, and the streets are full of travel agencies, bars, restaurants, trekking clothes stores and souvenir shops. Amongst all these there are still hundreds of internet cafes, second-hand bookstores and venues with live bands. Thamel is backpackers heaven! The streets are tiny and made of cobblestones, and the buildings are very tall on either side of the little alleyways. The area is full of foreigners and has a very bohemian feel to it.
We dedicated the next day in Kathmandu to preparation for the hike. Our guide, Narendra, came to pick us up from our hostel and take us to the hotel they had booked for us. On our way to meet Bishnu, the guy who we had been corresponding with to organize the trip, Loren patted a brown, fluffy dog. The dog became quite attached to her and followed her several hundred metres down the road. He still wouldn’t stop following, even as we entered the stairway to Bishnu’s office. He followed us up 2 flights of stairs and then wanted to come into the office. Eventually he left, but he was so cute!
We spent the rest of the day buying trail snacks, water, medications, clothes etc. Loren bought a pair of baggy pants for the trek. They looked like Aladdin pants, and were very popular with backpackers in Kathmandu. Loren also snuck off to find a birthday present for Artur, as we would return from the trek on his birthday. We packed one of our big backpacks with everything we would need for the trek, and filled all the extra space we had with bottles of water. Water is extremely expensive on the trail, so we made the most of the 30kg of luggage that our porter was supposed to carry.
