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It is quite surreal looking back over this blog site, a year on no less and finally getting around to writing about what happened in these pictures. It seems a bit weird but I will persevere, as I have a complete one for Tanzania and the Solomon Islands, so it would be a shame not to have completed this one. With my memory the way it is, this will no doubt have value at some point down the line. So whoever is reading this when I print it, there won't be many comments from folks back home, indeed they and myself have all but forgotten the trip. Much has changed, Danielle and I have parted ways and I have been living in the Solomon Islands though now in Adelaide but Nepal was a big part of this crazy ride so here we go….
Flying to Nepal was surreal to say the least it is hard to describe coming out of the African bush after living in camp with the same four people for three months, kind of a nervous excitement mixed with a bit of sadness knowing that the African experience was over. I remember flying into Oman at two in the morning and thinking it was not the friendliest of places and making things worse was the delay of four hours for my next flight. So there I was in a deserted airport sharing a lounge area with about fifty small Nepali guys twiddling our thumbs. Friendly guys though and with fashion somewhere between the movies "Grease" and "the lost boys" very cool all in all.
I finally got on the plane and as luck would have it Danielle's flight had also been delayed so we arrived in the airport and immigration at the same time. Romantic right? Well it would have been had my flight not had to circle the airport for an additional hour before landing and not allowing passengers to use the facilities during this time, as such I was busting getting off the plane and when our eyes met across the crowded foyer and Danielle moved in for that romantic pash, I virtually bowled her over hightailing it to the bathroom… Romance king.
From here we were lucky and surprised that though our flights had both been delayed for several hours our guide was still outside patiently waiting with the taxi to take us to the hotel. During the drive the new culture started to settle in and though coming to the hussle and bussle of Kathmandu with car horns honking and random cows walking the central drags of main highways, was a contrast to the quite of the African bush, I coped far better than Danielle. This was her first time in a developing country and the barely holding together taxi with no seatbelt along with the free for all driving style of the city had her gripping the roof with clenched teeth.
We arrived at the hotel which was nice all in all and then slept for the next 26 hours… I know exiting right… I can't really remember what else we did on this leg of the trip other than take a rickshaw ride to "The Garden Of Dreams" it is a nice place where all the young Nepali couples go to make out and among the nicely presented formal gardens with a large stone wall boundary, you can almost forget the chaos of the city outside.
The journey there though, was far more interesting than the destination. There was a communication error with our rickshaw operator and it wasn't until he had taken us halfway across town in the wrong direction and was pouring sweat from hauling us up hills and across bridges that we corrected the directions. I felt terrible for the bloke who muttered under his breath the whole ride back which included me getting out and helping push the rickshaw up some of the hills for the exhausted guy. We finally arrived and paid him, giving what I thought was a little extra for the troubles but may well have turned out to be a day's wage in hindsight so I understand now why he was still waiting at the gate two hours later to give us a free ride back to the hotel…
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