From Thailand to Nepal

We say goodbye with a heavy heart to the land of delicious shakes with one last shake and head to Kathmandu.

We read on the internet that we should try to be at the passport control as quickly as possible, as the queues are quite long and so is the waiting time. So, we pushed our way through and were one of the first ones at the counter. Unfortunately, the immigration officer took so long to check our passports that we ended up being the last ones and had to wait for a long time at the computer where the visas had to be processed. By the time we were done with everything, there were no more tourists in the airport building.

But that wasn't so bad. Because unfortunately, there was a typo in the visa application, so the visa had to be reissued. But since we arrived just before lunch break, neither we nor the immigration officer wanted to make a big deal out of it. So, he simply called one of his colleagues from the visa department and asked him to quickly make the change, and everything worked out.

Since we were the last ones, we were also at four different counters. The immigration officer at Mattis' counter was probably new. In any case, he managed to crash his system. So Carmen didn't have anything to do, three colleagues from the other counters went to him and tried to persuade him. Throughout this time, Mattis had to stand in front of the camera and couldn't move. When miraculously everything started working again (at least that's what they said), we were able to go to the baggage claim without any problems and alone. Our four backpacks were already neatly stacked there.

We quickly realized that we couldn't understand Nepalese English and it was enough to just nod and smile. That usually works fine.

At some point, we finally made it out of the airport and were immediately surrounded by a group of pushy but friendly taxi drivers. In Bangkok, we watched other tourists getting a taxi, but they were all gone. At some point, I separated myself from the crowd with the excuse that I wanted to get a coffee, otherwise the Nepalese wouldn't let me go. I went to another taxi driver and calmly negotiated a price. When he arrived with his car, we didn't think our luggage would fit in it. The taxi reminded us of a toy car.

On the way to our hotel, I immediately felt that I would feel comfortable in Nepal, and Chris felt the same way.

It seemed poorer than Thailand, but the atmosphere was light and cheerful...until we reached the center of Kathmandu called Thamel. It's complete chaos there. There don't seem to be any rules, and if there are, no one follows them. I was absolutely fascinated by the traffic. Everyone somehow manages to weave through, and when someone from a side street joins a main road, they just drive without looking. It's just constant honking.

Honking seems to have several meanings. Firstly, watch out, I'm coming. Secondly, I did see that you're there, but I won't brake or swerve. Thirdly, and we only realized this later on, after I unfortunately had to tell the taxi driver that he had to turn back, when you're angry. The taxi driver then just kept honking for no apparent reason, even when no one was nearby.

In the pouring rain, we took our backpacks out of the taxi and went into our hotel. There, we got the top room. So, we had to climb about 100 stairs. (Stairs would become a longer topic in Nepal, but more on that later). The room was really big, but unfortunately not as clean as some members of the family would have liked. Unfortunately, we couldn't close the window in the bathroom because the gas hose for the water heater passed through it. Since we didn't really feel like dealing with mosquitoes, we knew that we had to change the topic the next day.