Delhi-Kathmandu
First trip to India, January 2015
In the morning we flew to Kathmandu. We got to the airport by metro — very convenient. We walked from Main Bazaar to the metro station at New Delhi railway station, and from there it was about half an hour by metro — and we were at the airport.
Standing in a long line, we wondered how much time flights really eat up…
We flew on a low-cost flight; there was no food on the plane, but we arrived quickly and on time.
Kathmandu Airport is quite small. But for those who get a visa on arrival, there are very cool new terminals. It can scan your passport and automatically fills in part of the data. It takes your photo itself and issues a receipt, with which you then get your visa at the counter — you don’t need to have any extra photos or fill out the form by hand.
Near baggage claim there was an incredible crush — it’s hard to imagine what will happen at this airport when there are more tourists here….
As we exited the airport, taxi drivers surrounded us. They wanted quite a lot of money to take us to Thamel, the area where our hotel was located (about 6 dollars, and it’s really not far). One kind Nepali suggested that we could get there somehow by bus. We went looking for the bus stop, which was located to the left of the airport entrance, very close by. We got on the bus, and the driver told us when to get off. While riding the bus, the cleanliness of the streets immediately caught our eye — there was practically no trash on the roadside, it was even cleaner than in Ukraine. And after India, it seemed crystal clean here.
We transferred to a minibus. The minibus took us somewhere, then dropped us off and we walked. It wasn’t very close to Thamel, and Wolf was carrying our other backpack, so he was not very happy. I already regretted that we had decided to save money on a taxi….
We had a hard time finding the hotel; for some reason, the pin in our navigator was wrong. But as they say, language will get you to Kyiv, and with great difficulty we did find it.
Nepal has problems with electricity, so even in Kathmandu there is no power during the day. Most hotels and restaurants have electric generators — so there is light in the hotels, but the sockets in budget hotels do not work.
After settling in, we went for a walk around Thamel – a paradise for shopaholics. Thamel is the tourist center of Kathmandu; it probably has the highest concentration of hotels of various classes, guesthouses, souvenir shops, and restaurants.
There is a huge variety of goods sold here, from everything you could possibly need in the mountains to Osho books. There are lots of beautiful things and bags.
We wandered into some little alley and found a local eatery — there were Nepalis eating there, so we decided it was the right place and the prices were low too — and ordered the signature Nepali “dumplings,” momos, and soup. Everything was very tasty, and the bowl of soup was simply huge.
After eating our fill, we continued exploring Thamel. There are lots of counterfeit goods for tourists sold here — pants, jackets, thermal underwear — but the fakes look like decent quality and cost much less than the originals.
Nepalis are much nicer than Indians — completely unobtrusive. In the shop, they gladly answer questions and help out. But at the same time, they don’t put any pressure on you and don’t push anything on you — after India, it was so nice just to walk into a shop and calmly look around at the things.
In the evening, it was freezing in the hotel. But a warm blanket helped a little.
