The adventure started Friday, August 16, 2013, at 14:00. I managed to walk a little earlier to catch my train home from work to avoid stress, just to realize that I had forgotten the charger for my work computer... Running back + metro and a late train I ended up 30 minutes after schedule which isn't that bad but I didn't really have a big leeway when it came to time before departure. The small things that had to be done before leaving like; plugging out all electrical appliances, checking again there is no food that can create its own micro universe in our stuff, throwing away the garbage etc... Thankfully Tiphaine is a girl of LISTS and is happy to write one up for me so I don't forget anything, and with my memory that is a must.
After a quick shower we jumped in the car, towards the Oslo International Airport with my parents + Lisa to send us off. Norway seemed to be pretty sad to see us go, because despite the fact that we are in August, it was awfully gray and rainy, and we were not really suffocated by the heat!
First plane to Amsterdam, with a stop 1 hour in the country of tulips went great, when we landed we walked straight over to the next plane (Airbus A330) and boarded for the long night flight, one for Abu Dhabi. The company was Etihad Airways the national airline of the United Arab Emirates which means that the stewards are visibly recruited for their appearances then for their ability to smile. But it's comfortable; we'll survive there for 6h ☺
Arriving early morning in Abu Dhabi, its 6:15 and already 33 degrees. We wonder at how much it rises during the day.
Finally, we can stretch our legs a bit since there was a good 3 hours until our next flight. This seems endless; especially when you would give anything to have just ONE BED (I'm usually unable to sleep in any public place since I might scare people with my "thundering" snoring capabilities). The passenger waiting hall transfer is nice, though very crowded. There are "aquariums" for smokers, which is a room made of glass about 5 m2, where people are crammed on top of each other for that vital breath of nicotine and body odeur, while 20 others are lined up at the door.
Fun fact, there is a mosque in the toilet. One for women, one for men. I can only picture a westerner mistaking the way and finding himself in the middle of a sermon having to hold himself. As 3 hours is a long time we start people watching ! Seeing men all dressed in white, with a small veil on their head and with a black cloth ring to keep the veil in place. Women all dressed in black to contrast the men. White against black, yin and yang.
After an eternity, we are finally sitting in the last plane. 4 more hours before we finally will be touching the Nepalese soil!
In flight, we fly Dubai from above; it looks like a very white city, squashed by a blazing sun, with the false artificial harbor, fake lake, its buildings everywhere. We do not see a hint of green. Tiphaine wonders how they managed to build a ski resort there!
After 1 hour in the sky I'm suddenly struck by how calm it is, except the wind outside, people seem to be relaxing in the early morning breathing slowly and looking peacefully. My neighbor Nepalese says hello and introduces himself, my shyness left behind at the Norwegian border, I introduce myself and a pleasant conversation starts about Nepal until dinner arrives.
Finally the descent starts and Nepal is visible with green mountains, coming out of the clouds, with rice fields on the side. Many large rivers criss crosses the valley and the monsoon is in full effect.
The airport is not very big, but we still need a bus to take us from the airplane to the visa office! 35 meters driving later we enter a corridor and soon the visa office, where a great bunch of guys are passing our papers from hand to hand sitting behind a desk, and you must follow the movement without much delay or some quick "hidden" english words tell you to move along 30 centimeters at a time.
We arrive a the conveyor belt watching it move for 10 minutes before a gentleman comes along to say "No more luggage, go there". Ah the suitcases hasn't arrived... Great.
We do not get upset, instead we wait patiently in ?line? Its a traffic jam of people standing at the baggage lost counter all talking together at the same time creating a cacophony of different Nepali dialects. Ehm, where is that queue actually starting? Suddenly people starts pointing to the other side of the the counter. A man is standing patiently saying "this way, this way" and we move ahead.
I have to say that when you leave straight after work, chained to a 17.5h flight and you do not have your suitcase, you might be slightly tired and not ready to search for the english hidden between all the noise...
After 2 forms has been filled out and 1 year passed in that damn office, we understood more or less that we should try again tomorrow with the next flight. It was later learned that the next flight was too late, that the guys leave work at 1700 so we should wait for the next day.
We were supposed to be greeted by a colleague of Tiphaine's new job. But as with all these adventures we were damn late to the time of the appointment, Tiphaine said the guy would be gone, which we couldn't blame after all Saturday is his only freeday of the week. So we came out, attacked by a bunch of "taxiiii madam! Sir TAXI" The eye firmly on the guys who were waiting with their little sign. We saw nothing. Accumulated stress and tiredness, aside, it's kinda warm. Suddenly he was there with his little sign and a friend. He greeted us, gave us the famous white scarf around our necks, and a tiny car!
Ah yes, the tiny car ... Already in Nepal we drive on the left. Well atleast in principle. In fact you drive wherever you want, when it is possible to pass. It is a maze of buses from the 60s, cars of the 50s, 20s scooters, bicycles, plows, rickshaws, pedestrians. On the roadside, there are people sitting selling all kinds of stuff for tourists and in between you see dogs lazying in the sun and goats running around. I turn my attention on the traffic again and start smiling from the chaos, 3 cars coming straight ahead towards us while the colleague of Tiphaine says "you're lucky, today is Saturday, there's no cars! ". A death defying curve to avoid the three cars all the while the colleague is turned around towards us talking like this driving is the most natural way of driving.
Oh yeah, maybe I should rent a car here...
We arrived in our district, Thamel. The most touristy area, where many expatriates live. Here's another style of driving: the streets are 2-3m wide, which is rather small, especially when the edges are filled with shops that steals heavily from the public roads to show of their goods (carpets, pashminas and all the rest). In this small space, there are always cars, bikes, scooters, rickshaws, pedestrians. To move forward, we must keep close to the walls, avoid walking on sleeping dogs and people sitting selling incredible stuff.
We arrived at the apartment and the owner greets us. Pleasant surprise: the apartment is bigger than it appeared in the pictures, quite clean, well equipped and everything. He showed us the bathroom where when you shower in the middle.. It effectively transforms the place into a municipal pool, then shows the system of gas for cooking, showing that plate A doesn't work but there is a trick, that the window does not close well, but there is a trick, the lamp does not work but then there is no trick.
We went out to eat at Penguin's, a hotel restaurant that "looks clean." It is said that for the first night it might be better not too venture into a local resto.
The place is actually very clean, max kitsch, with originality: you can ask to have the flag of the country of your choice on the table, and especially, ESPECIALLY, you can invite to your table a teddybear to keep you company. We asked for the Nepalese flag (they looked at us a bit weird) and we invited a giant panda.
We slept like babies that night, despite the barking dogs, the kids crying and the tuuuuuuuuut of the street.
Sunday morning, August 18, 2013. The adventure can really begin!
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