Day 231- Travel to Kathmandu, Nepal

September 25^th, 2019

Our day started at 4am when we checked out of our hostel and got a Grab to the Chiang Mai airport.  Our first flight was to Bangkok where we landed in the domestic airport and took a free shuttle across town to the international airport for our flight to Nepal.  We had about six hours before our next flight to hang around the airport.  I did not book the later flight out of Chiang Mai because I was afraid it would be cutting it too close, and if there were any delays we would miss our flight to Nepal.  As it turns out it was the Nepal flight that was delayed so we actually spent about eight hours in the airport waiting.

That was okay though because nothing could dampen my excitement about going to the home of the world’s tallest mountains.  Ever since I was little I have been enthralled with the Himalayas.  My Dad and I used to watch all the mountain and climbing movies and I have always wanted to go.  As we were landing in Kathmandu I thought to myself that this was the most excited I have been for a destination.  We got off the plane and got our visas on arrival ($50 for 30 days). 

The chaos in this small airport was a good foretaste of what Kathmandu is like.  When we were in the taxi going to our hotel driving through narrow city streets, Brendan said “oh, there’s a cow in the road eating trash”.  It seemed out of place for a cow to be in the street of a massive city but we were quickly beginning to see this city is not like any other place we have been.  Kathmandu is also probably a good precursor for our trip to New Delhi so perhaps we won’t be quite as shocked when we get there. 

Even though the city is completely chaotic, everyone seems super nice based on first impression. We checked into the hotel and I think it was the worst room we have ever stayed in (and that is saying a lot!).  When we opened the door, we saw two separate roaches scurry across the floor.  It reeked of cigarettes and there were cigarette butts in the sink.  All the bedding was terribly stained and there was blood on the curtains.  I didn’t know if I could even stay there but it was almost 11pm and I felt like our options were going to be pretty limited, trying to pack all our stuff around in a sketchy looking neighborhood trying to find something better.  Plus, the guys at reception were so dang nice, I would have felt too bad turning around and leaving.  I think the standards are just extremely low here.  They genuinely wanted to make our stay nice and knocked on the door to bring us water and the WIFI password and ask if the room was okay, and if there was anything we needed from them.  It’s hard to comprehend how this room could possibly be okay but I think it is probably not that far off from what they are used to. 

We asked if there was an ATM machine close by as we didn’t have any Nepalese rupees and were hungry for dinner.  The guy acted concerned that we would be visiting an ATM at this hour and quickly volunteered to go with us. We tried to say it was not necessary, but he insisted so I stayed in the room and he took Brendan to find the ATM and get food. 

I got in my bug repellent sleeping bag liner and sat on the bed telling myself we just have to get through one night and then we can check out first thing in the morning to find something better.  It felt like Brendan was gone for a long time as I stared at the walls trying not to think of all the spiders, roaches, and rats that I knew were in them.  Brendan finally got back and walked in with a box of steaming hot pizza.  Things are looking up!  I excitedly opened the box and took my first bite.  Yuck!  It tasted horrible!  I looked at the bottom of the crust only to see it was covered in mold.  We tried to eat some of the cheese off the top but it tasted awful too, so we just had to put the box of pizza outside which I was hoping would draw all the bugs out of our room.  Still excited to be here but just not in this room, I covered my head with the sleeping bag liner and tried to go to sleep.