10:00 am
May 2, 2011
Hotel Moonlight
Thamel, Kathmandu, Nepal
Two really awesome things about using public computers in a country that is not primarily english speaking:
1. The keyboard is in Nepali, with some English....but very few of the symbols (such as brackets, commas, periods, etc.) So excuse my mistakes
2.Justin Bieber is the desktop picture on all three of the computers.
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On April 29th, 2011 I took off from the Victoria International Airport at 7pm to start my epic journey across the world. Tina, Amanda, and I took the 7 instead of the 8 as we were early, and there was extra space on the flight. Upon arriving in Vancouver (23 minutes later) we followed all of the signs through to our connecting flight. Then we began a 7 hour wait for our plane.
We decided to make ourselves more comfortable, so Tina began to rearrange furniture, Amanda helped....I took a nap on the floor :) We played a game of crib, me against Team Amanda and Tina....lots of fun! Finally, around midnight we met up with the rest of our group. Everyone at this point was super tired, but not as tired as they were going to become over the next 36 hours or so. At 2:20 we were called to begin boarding, and at 2:45 we were taking off to Hong Kong.
The flight to Hong Kong is a 13 hour flight and it was running a little late so we didn't land until 7:30 Hong Kong time (approximately 15 hours ahead of home time). I was in the second to last row on the plane right between Tina and Isha. Isha fell asleep immediately. Tina and I decided to watch television shows in the back of seat entertainment centres. My first bevy on the plane was a beer, and thank goodness for that choice. Because, after a beer and a dinner of chessy pasta I was lights out for a good 4 or 5 hours.
Most of the flight I napped, or watched Desperate Housewives. When I wasn't doing one of these activities I was watching one of the two coolest features of the entertainment centre. Cool feature 1. You can track your flight all the way across. We flew from Vancouver, up along the coast, up the edge of Alaska, across to Russia, down to Japan, and to Hong Kong. Flying into HK we were astounded by what we could see. It was tons of pockets of high rise buildings surrounded by rainforest. Gorgeous! Not very much urban sprawl. The women's washroom at the HK airport arrivals had a mommy and daughter toilet stall. There was a small toilet and a normal size toilet in the same stall!
We took the train into town from theairport and then transferred to a free shuttle. We noticed that the train was very clean (it even had carpets) and there was no graffiti. Also, in all the stations every cart (loose or captured) were neatly lined up and organized. Hong Kong felt like Sydney, Australia meets china town. It's a beautiful city with a clear poor population. Many buildings have the bottom floor as retail and the top 20 floors as decrepit, run down housing. There were your stereotypical air conditioners and laundry hanging out the window. Often, these low-income areas would be on top of fancy stores, such as Cartier, and Tiffany and Co. It was a weird juxtaposition. The one thing that I didn't see, were any people living on the streets. It was very clean, everywhere.
We saw the YMCA which was celebrating its 110th anniversary this year as well as my new favourite kitchen tool. It was a a BEJEWELED STAND UP MIXER! It's beautiful. It's amazing. It's the Kenwood's 60th Anniversary Limited kMix "Diamond" collection.
We ran into Robin, Patti, and Garret on the street and they told us about this noodle shop, that was in an underground plaza. WE went there and had quite an enjoyable experience. Very little english was spoken, and the shop was full of locals, no other tourists. I had noodles with veg, curry sauce, and egg. We explored many shops and then went down to the harbour - Victoria Harbour, I believe it's called. We walked along the promenade and took pictures of the different boats and buildings that scattered the far shore. Next, we went to the HK Art Museum, entrance was 10 HK Dollars, which is approximately $1.20 CAD. Good find! It was incredible. There were all sorts of types of art. We saw contemporary art, sculptures, antique clay works, calligraphy, and scroll work. These works of art date back to hundreds and hundreds of years ago up until nearly present day. All these works were done by asian artists, most of which are Chinese. It was incredible.
We stopped at 7-11 for some water and met back up with rest of the group. We took the shuttle and train back to the airport, got some Ben and Jerrys and some dinner and boarded our final flight. It was a 6 hour flight with a hour touchdown in Bakha, Bangladesh to let some passengers off and a few more passengers on. Amanada and I had a beer and I was sound asleep again. I woke up only a few times. Once to say "Oooo Bangladesh" and another about 45 minutes before the end of the flight, and a couple other times for juice and water breaks. Apparently I tossed and turned a bunch. But I think I was so tired that I didn't even notice. Amanda was very helpful getting me juice and water, as I was very tired and not super understandable in my groggy state.
We touched down in Nepal at 10:30pm and it was suchh a relief to be there finally!!!! I loved HK and I loved all the travel, but I was exhausted to the max. We went through immigration (I got another stamp!) then went to collect our bags. There are many men trying to help you with your bags, who all expect a large tip. I feel that I was politely assertive when I said No. Gokul and his friend came and picked us up from the airport in a Bussette. He'll be our guide throughout our entire trip, he's very nice and super helpful. The airport was full of uniformed guards carrying large sticks and whistles prodding people along. Almost like cattle herding, but with people. Patti mentioned to me as we were waiting in line for immigration, that Nepal relies on the tourist industry for their economy. This means, that tourists get preferential treatment over residents. We were bumped through many lines and didn't have to get our bags scanned in customs.
Our driver drove us to the Hotel Moonlight in Thamel (a tourist area). I felt like we were driving through slums. It was 11pm there, so there was nobody on the street, except a few dogs and a herd of cattle. The streets were lined with garbage and all of the shops had colourful garage-style doors covering their entrances. When we arrived we were served mango juice and our bags were taken to our room (no need for tip, part of the hotel's responsibility).
Amanda and I are room buddies. Last night, there was a rainstorm, dog fight, party in the room next door and some much needed horizontal rest taking place. We woke up at 8:00am and showered. Our bathroom is a big open room with shower, toilet, and sink. The beds are hardish and the pillows aren't that soft. It's great for a tired head and body, because after that little sleep, it stops mattering what you're sleeping on. We went for breakfast in the hotel restaurant, it was a buffet. Eggs, toast, cauliflower, mango juice, instant coffee all made their way into my tummy. It was delicious.
Today, we are meeting at 11:30 as a group to have our first little seminar and then we are going to go explore our neighbourhood, and take part in a cultural excursion. I have already taken so many pictures, and can't wait to explore and take many more. My feet and ankles were substantially swollen last night as I went to bed, and are less swollen this morning, hopefully they will be unswollen shortly.
All for now, more news coming after more adventures.
Namaste
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