Day 1... Forms and faff

 

Day 1...

The last you heard was from me just before diving onto the plane from Heathrow, bound for Dehli. A 8 hour flight overnight with a late morning landing in India. Never been to India and I'm on the ground for more than an hour so it counts!

The flight was ok... back to back movies of Adam Sandler before finally dozing off fitfully in my cramped little seat. The bike helmet jabbing into my legs from under the seat. The joys of longer haul flights.

That said it seemed to pass very quickly. Even the 2 young kids in front of me were quiet throughout and with decent enough seat mates, there was no one digging their elbows into me for the entire flight.

The plane even seemed to be heading in, the right direction this time, not for some pseudo Kathmandu in America (damn the Americans for using existing place names)

1st up was Dehli and as I flew over India, I looked down to see thousands of miles of fields and rivers below. From up here the roads looked good and the gradients flattened out. As we came closer to Dehli a smog descended and we were flying blind (Thank god for Radar) as we approached the landing strip. As we descended the hustle and bustle became more apparent and the traffic jams were easily visible on the approach. Not that it mattered as I had the grand total of 2.5 hours before my next flight. We disembarked and at the end of the walkway they were collecting all the Kathmandu passengers and urged to follow 2 airpirt workers pusholing people in wheelchairs at a pace  Off we all shot. Just as well I didn't need a bathroom break desparately... cos we weren't allowed to stop. On and on down carpeted corridors until finally they ushered into another security bit... off came the watch, belt, money pouches etc for the 2 time today. It was unusual to have to go through all this rigmarole when you are transiting.

I was roundly cursing the choice of my belt as it was metal and awkward to pass through the belt loops. 

(It was about this point in the blog that I crashed out in my nice warm hotel room in Kathmandu hence the delay in posting)

Where was I... ah yes.. security. 

I prode myself on having my shit sorted for security. I am careful with packing my bags so that stuff in hand luggage is good and I don't have anything that would cause security to hold me up. I am prepared when I hit the conveyor belts with everything out of my pockets and in my rucksack so that I am not the one who inevitably is standing there, puzzled expression on their face, going 'what do you mean you can't take water through' or disrobing at the conveyor belt because they didn't 'hear' the repeatedly shouted instructions of take off your belts and shoes....

So it was somewhat galling to fall foul of security. My bag often tags something up in the x ray machine due to all the gadgets like the SPOT tracker etc amd this time again it was selected for a further search. I had taken out the stuff sack with all my electrical stuff in and he made me tip it all out into the box. He asked about my Garmin Gps and the tracker and then siezed upon another stuff sack with all my. spare batteries and asked me to open... 

Not allowed he said as he saw the multitude of spare batteries AA and AAA... 

But they were allowed on the flight from uk to Dehli???

'Not allowed'

What can you do?? 

I watched as he took most of my batteries and threw them in a bin. Then he asked what the rope was in my bag. I was again puzzled. Rope? No rope... 

Then it dawned on me... and with a bit of a rummage, pulled out my water bladder with its hose. He nodded and fortunately let me keep that. I left security a little annoyed about the batteries. A small thing I know, but I didnt know how easy it was going to be to find AAA batteries. At least I had a day in Kathmandu to work it out and replace them. 

I could see why they had ushered us straight off the plane as with the ponderous security and the long walk between gates, it was a tight turnaround... or at least it would have been had the second flight been on time. 

We went to the gate advertised.... and waited. Then got directed to another gate... and waited... then got asked to go out of the gate waiting area because the Air India flight to Kathmandu was still bording. Then asked to go even further out of the waiting area.... 

Finally we were invited back in... checked on board and away we went. 

The flight was a short one, interspersed with a bit of chat with my seat mate Kush, from Mauritius. The highlight of the flight was not the plane meal, though actually, aside from being a little spicy, was nice enough. The highlight was seeing the himalayas jutting up above the clouds. I tried to work out if I could see the Annapurna range but it was a little tricky as there were sooo many. They looked tall and inviting. Their dark grey flanks covered in white stretching and melding with the clouds in. contrast to the flat river valley below us, carpeted with trees, with dry river beds spreading out like a network of veins. Flat, at least from here, the river valley looked inviting for a bike. In contrast the foothills stretched up and up, and then down, like a crumpled duvet... and of course that is where me and my bike are headed first. The river valley will have to wait until the main part of my ride is done... a reward for the struggles ahead.

With a bump, we arrived on Nepali soil, poured off the plane to the waiting bus and into a nice clean terminal to once again line up... 

Firstly at the visa machine but then on getting wifi, filling out the form online. Then lining up to pay for the visa... then I thought I might as well change a small amount of money here, so another queue. So far so good. Out to baggage, where I asked what door my bike would come through as oversize baggage usually is dropped somewhere other than the baggage train. Not this time and I watched as my bike flew up the ramp, dropped onto the conveyor belt and then into the side of it.

I grabbed the bag hoping that the bubblewrap and the soft case had done its job!

Then out through customs where I had to put my bike  and bags through another x ray machine... Surprised they arent glowing yet. Finally through and straight to the NCell desk where another form and a passport photo (one I prepared earlier) gave me a nepali mobile number and data for the duration of the trip.

All forms done, I wandered out into the balmy evening  and looked for my pick up driver from the hotel. Not there in arrivals. I wandered outside to another row of waiting drivers, nope no one holding my name up. I walked up and down the line and then one gentleman asked which hotel so I told him and he said he would find out for me. A quick call from him. and he asked me to follow him...

He took me to the car park exit and informed me that the hotel driver was stuck in traffic but would be here shortly.. so I stood watching the airport chaos... cars taxis motorbikes, all over the road, narrowly missing each other. couple of times a taxi stopped to ask if I needed a ride but I put my faith in the hotel and waited. 

Eventually a small van drove up and the driver jumped out clutching my name card. The gentleman who had helped me find him, helped load my bag and another guy arrived from nowhere and helped him as well, meaning 2 people were now expectant of a tip. I gave the original helpful chap a decent tip, the other guy a couple 100 rupees.  still a bit perplexed by tipping, not being used to it on a daily basis and still getting to grips with the nepali currency and tipping practices. No idea what the standard is... and they of course knew that, so I prob gave them more than usual. It will take a few days to work out whats best.

The drive to the hotel was stop start in lines of cars and motorbikes, all pushing their way along the road, honking their horns and looking like an accident was inevitable. I did have a seat belt, which I wasnt expecting, so that was on tightly. There seemed to be no traffic rules and few traffic lights. Police with lit batons were directing traffic at the most busy intersections putting life and limb at risk or so it seemed. The air was thick with pollution, a contrast to the poster pics of nepal and the mountains.

I now suddenly felt very tired and stiff after a long journey and I sat there and let the sights, smells and sounds of city life wash over me. It reminded me of Uganda with the chaos or perhaps Quito and although strange it also felt familiar and strangely satisfying to be back into this kind of environment.

After about an hour of collision avoidance, we turned down a smaller alleyway and pulled up at the hotel entrance. Nice large clean lobby. My journey here was done! 

Checked in and shown to my room which was nice, clean and big enough to sort stuff out.

Then after a quick inventory of money and kit, I wandered up to the roof terrace to get a signal for SPOT and look at the view. It was nice. The lights of the city blared up and the noises filtered up from the street. I could see in to some of the apartment block homes, people getting on with their evening chores. In the distance, lights twinkled from the hills around, their outlines looking tall and imposing. 

SPOT blinked green and appeared to have sent the check in message but when I checked online it hadn't appeared. So I tried again, no dice. 

It seems, following an online chat with the SPOT people that Nepal is one of the countries (in a worldwide service) where coverage is what they term 'spotty'. Ironic maybe, but it means that my check in ok messages and the tracking are unlikely to go through. Reassuringly they said the SOS button will still do its job, which is the most important bit. Annoying especially when its advertised as worldwide but hey ho. I bought it mainly for the rescue emergency option but over the years the check in and the tracking have also helped reassure family and friends that im ok.

At least the cell network seems ok and I should have some connection for most of the trip. 

So having been tied up chatting to the SPOT support people, I now realised I was hungry and wanted to go out into the streets to look around and find some local food. 

The area im staying in is the most touristy bit. Thamel is where a lot of the hotels are and souvenir shops. The streets here werent as traffic bound as the ones from the airport and people, cars and motorbikes shared the narrow streets amicably enough. The shops I wandered past were selling souvenirs, tea and spices, and cheap, very cheap trekking gear. Although I cant have any more kit on. my bike, it will be temping not to buy some cheap kit for home on the way back.

I made friends with a t shirt seller who promised me a t shirt at warehouse price if I came back with my bike for a photo with him in his shop... deal... 

I promised numerous other people (perhaps not wholly truthfully) that I would definately come back after my ride to buy something in their shop and generally had a fun half hour or so chatting to the storeholders. 

I found a restaurant selling cheap local food, sat myself down and perused the menu. 

I generally stick to veggie when abroad, my one slip up ending in food poisoning in ecuador. Determined not to make that mistake again, I ordered a paneer butter curry with naan bread. The food arrived promptly and very hot and I spent a lovely 40 minutes, eating slowly and reading my book whilst people watching. Several other western people came in and seemed to have a harder time finding something they wanted to eat. 

I finished off the last of my curry, chugged down the lassi drink and paid a few quid for the meal then wandered back out suddenly feeling knackered. I completed my tour of this street and then wandered back to the hotel. It was now 2130 and the shops were shutting up. I opportunistically dived into a small kisok because I saw some batteries and bought a few small packs. No AAA though. 

Then back to my room.. all intentions of putting my bike together tonight forgotten. I crawled into the small comfy bed and started my blog....... 

and fell asleep 😴

Hence why Im sitting here at 0800 this morning finishing off the blog before breakfast. 

Today Im off to get my permit, change money into rupees and get the lie of the land. Then I have to put my bike together before setting off tomorrow towards the high mountains. 

Then the real hard work begins. 

😜