29 - 30 Nov 2012
Wow, here it is - my new blog! Its way overdue as I've now been in Nepal a month but there are reasons for that other then my lazy arse. Internet was very difficult to find at first and also we did go on a 19day camping trek in the Himalayas. Luckily I kept a handwritten journal so I can relay everything in here now. Now for entry number 1 - enjoy :)
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I slept restlessly the night before we left (Oct 28th, 2012). The anticipation of our big trip weighing heavy on my mind. My boyfriend, Sam and I have been planning this since February and I cannot believe I'm finally here! His parents and sister took us out to dinner as a last goodbye meal. It was this beautiful local Italian restaurant in Bondi where everything was traditionally homemade and I had the best gnocchi I've had since my mother's Italian family made it. Sam's parents also love their wine so we were sipping some of Italy's finest red which was seriously divine. I felt truly spoilt!
After dinner we got home to Sam's bomb of a room. My shit was all over his bed as I had been sorting through it earlier and hadn't actually started packing. So of course we didn't get to bed til midnight. I had the worst sleep, like I do before any trip. Thoughts going over and over about what I still needed to pack in the morning. My alarm was set for 6am as we had to leave by 7.30, but of course I was awake every hr on the hr and then finally from 4am when I didn't actually fall back to sleep again. I eventually got up at 5.30 as I figured sleep was a lost cause. Sam was snoring away next to me as usual. Damn that boy is lucky that he never has trouble sleeping!
So after our goodbyes to his mum and sister, Sam's dad Steve drove us to the train station where we headed for Sydney International Airport. I was struggling with all my baggage already. How the hell am I going to last ex amount of months back packing through South East Asia with this much weight? I've never been that great at traveling light. My main back pack weighed in at 14.5kg, then I have my smaller back pack for carry on which we both agreed weighed almost as much as my big one, then of course my sling camera bag/hand bag type which was another few kgs due to my heavy equipment. I can see some major back problems coming ahead!
Our first flight from Sydney - Guangzhou (China) was 9hrs with China Southern Airlines who we were expecting to be a nightmare due to the bad reviews online. They completely overtook our expectations and were even better then Qantas! 9hrs was still long though, and the in flight entertainment cracked us up! Some movie with Nicole Kidman kept replaying over and over again, but just the start of it. The movie would begin playing and roughly 5mins in the tv would fold up into the roof and disappear. Then it would happen all over again a few more times. Eventually the tv stayed down and the movie played all the way through. Sam watched it but I was busy reading 50 shades of Grey on my kindle which is extremely addictive!!
As we were coming into land the tv popped out of the roof again and had a 15min screening of exercises that you should do when flying for an ex amount of time. It was all in Chinese but had English subtitles. The funniest part was looking above the seats and seeing all the Chinese passengers with their arms in the air imitating the video! Sam and I were cracking up. I wish I got a photo....
We arrived in Guangzhou exhausted and hot as the humid heat was not something we were dressed for. Crazy to think that after a 5hr flight to Kathmandu we'll be freezing!
Guangzhou airport was confusing as hell. We got off the plane at 6pm and our flight to Nepal was departing at 7.10pm, Which mean we should've been boarding at 6.30. As we walked down the stairs of the plane we saw signs of other CSA flight numbers with Chinese yelling out to join them if your flight was one of them. After thoroughly looking we realised ours wasn't but still asked someone where we were meant to go. They yelled "Get on the Bus" so we followed everyone else, jumped on the bus and stood there nervously as we waited a 5 or 10min drive which took us to the arrivals and baggage area. Instantly we're like ahhh shit! We're meant to just be catching our connecting flight and our baggage was going to be transferred through. We started panicking a bit at this point thinking we were in the completely wrong part of the airport. Luckily there was a help desk inside which directed us the rest of the way. Far out it was confusing tho!
The flight to kathmandu zipped by as I fell into an exhausted sleep, I had been awake for over 24hrs now, plus running on only a couple hrs of sleep. Sam also drifted off and when we were woken to the cabin crew getting us ready for landing we both felt like absolute shit. We wanted bed bad.
The visa on arrival line was extremely long. I guess that's what you get for saving $75 USD each instead of organizing the visa in Australia. My bags were heavy and the airport was hot. There were pushy rude Europeans behind us trying to push in front and the whole thing was just so exhausting as the line barely moved. I think we were there for 1.5hrs in total. We managed to pick the slowest line of course and somehow that line split in two at one stage and people who were well behind us ended up passing us. It was a nightmare. We were one of the last people to be served in the end. But getting that stamp in our passport and we were on our way! Woo!
It was midnight in Kathmandu at this point, 5am in Sydney. We didn't even care anymore about trying to find a cheap place. We just wanted bed... fast. So the first guys that jumped on us with taxi for 750 Rupees and a room for $20 a night we just went with. The room had Wifi they assured us.
As we drove through Kathmandu we felt like we were in a ghost town. There was no one in sight and all the shop roller doors were pulled closed. It was really eerie... Our guesthouse was 'The Buddha Garden'. Our room was extremely basic, and definitely not worth $20 but hell, it was a room. The Wifi of course did not work, but we didn't care too much as we fell into a deep sleep.
The next day we woke reasonably early to people outside. Ahh to be in Asia, where you will never get a quiet nights sleep again. We decided to have breakfast at our guesthouse before checking out and jumping into a taxi with all our luggage set for 'Durbar Square, Freak Street", We wanted to stay at Monumental Paradise, where we were recommended to stay by my Danish couch surfer friend Anders. The taxi driver appeared confident in where we wanted to go and said 500 rupees ($6). Not knowing how far it was we just went with it. It was about midday at this point and was alot warmer then we thought it would be. Not hot by all means but it was a beautiful sunny day in the early to mid twenties.
The drive was very short, maybe between 5 or 10mins? We arrived in the middle of Durbar Square, no 'Freak Street' in sight. The driver did not know it afterall. So we paid the bastard the money and jumped out. Instantly we are asked for money as apparently you need a ticket to be in the square. We stand there looking at each other, hesitating. Luckily before we gave over more money a Nepalese guy ran over "You are staying on Freak Street right?" We both shout "Yes!" " Ahh no worries then, you don't need a ticket, follow me, I show you the way." We start to follow him and I am thinking we'll have to pay him at some point surely. He doesn't take us far, just around the corner and points down out of the square to the main street and says "Down there, go straight and you will find Freak Street!". We are extremely grateful and surprisingly he does not want any money! He was just being very friendly and helping us out. Well, even with his help we did not find Freak Street. We walked down straight as he said but it was maniac. There were locals everywhere! It was so hard to move in between all the people, scooters, tuk tuks etc. Both Sam and I suck at directions so it really was a disaster. My bags started weighing heavily down on me and I was sweating big time in the sun as I was wearing too many layers. We walked back and forth up several different streets, we asked taxi drivers, shop owners, random tourists and locals in the street. NO ONE knew this freak street. Finally a policeman directed us and we did find 'Old Freak Street'. We began walking down that but it didn't look right and it didn't turn into Freak Street. We see an Internet Cafe and hope to jump online to figure it out. But alas the line is currently down... No internet. Of fucking course.
After 2hrs of aimlessly wondering and not getting any answers from anyone who knew clearly, we decide to jump back into a taxi to Thamel, where we stayed the night before, the main tourist hub, where there are guesthouses by the bucket loads! This time it's only 200 ($2.50) rupee by taxi. Hmm, so that first one ripped us off! Of course.
We found a guesthouse for 1000 rupee a night ($12), our room had a double bed, hot water and it was very spacious so we were happy. This was our home for 2nights. I was happy to just get rid of my bags. My shoulders and back were in agony by this point. I need to do something about all the weight I'm carrying.
Our guesthouse was in the prime part of Thamel so we soon found a few places we fell in love with. 'Sams Bar' was where we had our first beer 'Ghorka'. We ate dinner at a traditional Nepalese restaurant that the locals go to on our first night and had the delicious Chili Chicken Momos for the first time (Nepalese dumplings). They have become our favourite Nepalese delicacy so far.
Both nights we went to bed at 7pm and were kept up most of the night by a raging nightclub outside our window. I guess that's what you have to deal with in the tourist hotspot of Kathmandu. We didn't do much during the day except for sleep in, eat and a little shopping for stuff for our trek.
Nov 1st we checked out and went to find a taxi to take us to the Radisson. A 5 star resort which was part of our trek package. We would be staying 2 nights there before we head off on the 19day camping and trekking in the Annapurna Circuit. As I waddled into the bustling streets of Thamel again, Sam decided to grab a tuk tuk to take us to Radisson as he agreed on our 200 rupees. I looked at this bicycle vehicle with a 2seat carriage on it and thought, "Are you Serious??". I don't know how but we managed to get on with all our luggage. My bag was half falling off the whole way and I had to grip it tightly. It was stressful. The poor guy couldn't even cycle us in parts because we were too much weight and he had to push the bike. It was insane.
Arriving at the fancy radisson in our cheap arse tuk tuk was hilarious. I wonder what people were thinking. Wow what a change tho! Every time we walked in and out of the doors there would be a well dressed Nepalese guy saluting us or putting his hands together in a praying position to say 'Namaste Madamme, Namaste Sir'. At first it was funny but then we started avoiding eye contact as we would go in and out constantly and didn't want them to keep saying it to us! Totally different to our Little cobbled streets of Themal with our budget guesthouse.
We were excited for the shower the most as we'd been dealing with no hot water or hardly any and hardly any pressure, it just trickles out so you can barely even have a shower. The Radisson was a normal hotel you get back home with super water pressure. It was heaven :)
Wow, here it is - my new blog! Its way overdue as I've now been in Nepal a month but there are reasons for that other then my lazy arse. Internet was very difficult to find at first and also we did go on a 19day camping trek in the Himalayas. Luckily I kept a handwritten journal so I can relay everything in here now. Now for entry number 1 - enjoy :)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I slept restlessly the night before we left (Oct 28th, 2012). The anticipation of our big trip weighing heavy on my mind. My boyfriend, Sam and I have been planning this since February and I cannot believe I'm finally here! His parents and sister took us out to dinner as a last goodbye meal. It was this beautiful local Italian restaurant in Bondi where everything was traditionally homemade and I had the best gnocchi I've had since my mother's Italian family made it. Sam's parents also love their wine so we were sipping some of Italy's finest red which was seriously divine. I felt truly spoilt!
After dinner we got home to Sam's bomb of a room. My shit was all over his bed as I had been sorting through it earlier and hadn't actually started packing. So of course we didn't get to bed til midnight. I had the worst sleep, like I do before any trip. Thoughts going over and over about what I still needed to pack in the morning. My alarm was set for 6am as we had to leave by 7.30, but of course I was awake every hr on the hr and then finally from 4am when I didn't actually fall back to sleep again. I eventually got up at 5.30 as I figured sleep was a lost cause. Sam was snoring away next to me as usual. Damn that boy is lucky that he never has trouble sleeping!
So after our goodbyes to his mum and sister, Sam's dad Steve drove us to the train station where we headed for Sydney International Airport. I was struggling with all my baggage already. How the hell am I going to last ex amount of months back packing through South East Asia with this much weight? I've never been that great at traveling light. My main back pack weighed in at 14.5kg, then I have my smaller back pack for carry on which we both agreed weighed almost as much as my big one, then of course my sling camera bag/hand bag type which was another few kgs due to my heavy equipment. I can see some major back problems coming ahead!
Our first flight from Sydney - Guangzhou (China) was 9hrs with China Southern Airlines who we were expecting to be a nightmare due to the bad reviews online. They completely overtook our expectations and were even better then Qantas! 9hrs was still long though, and the in flight entertainment cracked us up! Some movie with Nicole Kidman kept replaying over and over again, but just the start of it. The movie would begin playing and roughly 5mins in the tv would fold up into the roof and disappear. Then it would happen all over again a few more times. Eventually the tv stayed down and the movie played all the way through. Sam watched it but I was busy reading 50 shades of Grey on my kindle which is extremely addictive!!
As we were coming into land the tv popped out of the roof again and had a 15min screening of exercises that you should do when flying for an ex amount of time. It was all in Chinese but had English subtitles. The funniest part was looking above the seats and seeing all the Chinese passengers with their arms in the air imitating the video! Sam and I were cracking up. I wish I got a photo....
We arrived in Guangzhou exhausted and hot as the humid heat was not something we were dressed for. Crazy to think that after a 5hr flight to Kathmandu we'll be freezing!
Guangzhou airport was confusing as hell. We got off the plane at 6pm and our flight to Nepal was departing at 7.10pm, Which mean we should've been boarding at 6.30. As we walked down the stairs of the plane we saw signs of other CSA flight numbers with Chinese yelling out to join them if your flight was one of them. After thoroughly looking we realised ours wasn't but still asked someone where we were meant to go. They yelled "Get on the Bus" so we followed everyone else, jumped on the bus and stood there nervously as we waited a 5 or 10min drive which took us to the arrivals and baggage area. Instantly we're like ahhh shit! We're meant to just be catching our connecting flight and our baggage was going to be transferred through. We started panicking a bit at this point thinking we were in the completely wrong part of the airport. Luckily there was a help desk inside which directed us the rest of the way. Far out it was confusing tho!
The flight to kathmandu zipped by as I fell into an exhausted sleep, I had been awake for over 24hrs now, plus running on only a couple hrs of sleep. Sam also drifted off and when we were woken to the cabin crew getting us ready for landing we both felt like absolute shit. We wanted bed bad.
The visa on arrival line was extremely long. I guess that's what you get for saving $75 USD each instead of organizing the visa in Australia. My bags were heavy and the airport was hot. There were pushy rude Europeans behind us trying to push in front and the whole thing was just so exhausting as the line barely moved. I think we were there for 1.5hrs in total. We managed to pick the slowest line of course and somehow that line split in two at one stage and people who were well behind us ended up passing us. It was a nightmare. We were one of the last people to be served in the end. But getting that stamp in our passport and we were on our way! Woo!
It was midnight in Kathmandu at this point, 5am in Sydney. We didn't even care anymore about trying to find a cheap place. We just wanted bed... fast. So the first guys that jumped on us with taxi for 750 Rupees and a room for $20 a night we just went with. The room had Wifi they assured us.
As we drove through Kathmandu we felt like we were in a ghost town. There was no one in sight and all the shop roller doors were pulled closed. It was really eerie... Our guesthouse was 'The Buddha Garden'. Our room was extremely basic, and definitely not worth $20 but hell, it was a room. The Wifi of course did not work, but we didn't care too much as we fell into a deep sleep.
The next day we woke reasonably early to people outside. Ahh to be in Asia, where you will never get a quiet nights sleep again. We decided to have breakfast at our guesthouse before checking out and jumping into a taxi with all our luggage set for 'Durbar Square, Freak Street", We wanted to stay at Monumental Paradise, where we were recommended to stay by my Danish couch surfer friend Anders. The taxi driver appeared confident in where we wanted to go and said 500 rupees ($6). Not knowing how far it was we just went with it. It was about midday at this point and was alot warmer then we thought it would be. Not hot by all means but it was a beautiful sunny day in the early to mid twenties.
The drive was very short, maybe between 5 or 10mins? We arrived in the middle of Durbar Square, no 'Freak Street' in sight. The driver did not know it afterall. So we paid the bastard the money and jumped out. Instantly we are asked for money as apparently you need a ticket to be in the square. We stand there looking at each other, hesitating. Luckily before we gave over more money a Nepalese guy ran over "You are staying on Freak Street right?" We both shout "Yes!" " Ahh no worries then, you don't need a ticket, follow me, I show you the way." We start to follow him and I am thinking we'll have to pay him at some point surely. He doesn't take us far, just around the corner and points down out of the square to the main street and says "Down there, go straight and you will find Freak Street!". We are extremely grateful and surprisingly he does not want any money! He was just being very friendly and helping us out. Well, even with his help we did not find Freak Street. We walked down straight as he said but it was maniac. There were locals everywhere! It was so hard to move in between all the people, scooters, tuk tuks etc. Both Sam and I suck at directions so it really was a disaster. My bags started weighing heavily down on me and I was sweating big time in the sun as I was wearing too many layers. We walked back and forth up several different streets, we asked taxi drivers, shop owners, random tourists and locals in the street. NO ONE knew this freak street. Finally a policeman directed us and we did find 'Old Freak Street'. We began walking down that but it didn't look right and it didn't turn into Freak Street. We see an Internet Cafe and hope to jump online to figure it out. But alas the line is currently down... No internet. Of fucking course.
After 2hrs of aimlessly wondering and not getting any answers from anyone who knew clearly, we decide to jump back into a taxi to Thamel, where we stayed the night before, the main tourist hub, where there are guesthouses by the bucket loads! This time it's only 200 ($2.50) rupee by taxi. Hmm, so that first one ripped us off! Of course.
We found a guesthouse for 1000 rupee a night ($12), our room had a double bed, hot water and it was very spacious so we were happy. This was our home for 2nights. I was happy to just get rid of my bags. My shoulders and back were in agony by this point. I need to do something about all the weight I'm carrying.
Our guesthouse was in the prime part of Thamel so we soon found a few places we fell in love with. 'Sams Bar' was where we had our first beer 'Ghorka'. We ate dinner at a traditional Nepalese restaurant that the locals go to on our first night and had the delicious Chili Chicken Momos for the first time (Nepalese dumplings). They have become our favourite Nepalese delicacy so far.
Both nights we went to bed at 7pm and were kept up most of the night by a raging nightclub outside our window. I guess that's what you have to deal with in the tourist hotspot of Kathmandu. We didn't do much during the day except for sleep in, eat and a little shopping for stuff for our trek.
Nov 1st we checked out and went to find a taxi to take us to the Radisson. A 5 star resort which was part of our trek package. We would be staying 2 nights there before we head off on the 19day camping and trekking in the Annapurna Circuit. As I waddled into the bustling streets of Thamel again, Sam decided to grab a tuk tuk to take us to Radisson as he agreed on our 200 rupees. I looked at this bicycle vehicle with a 2seat carriage on it and thought, "Are you Serious??". I don't know how but we managed to get on with all our luggage. My bag was half falling off the whole way and I had to grip it tightly. It was stressful. The poor guy couldn't even cycle us in parts because we were too much weight and he had to push the bike. It was insane.
Arriving at the fancy radisson in our cheap arse tuk tuk was hilarious. I wonder what people were thinking. Wow what a change tho! Every time we walked in and out of the doors there would be a well dressed Nepalese guy saluting us or putting his hands together in a praying position to say 'Namaste Madamme, Namaste Sir'. At first it was funny but then we started avoiding eye contact as we would go in and out constantly and didn't want them to keep saying it to us! Totally different to our Little cobbled streets of Themal with our budget guesthouse.
We were excited for the shower the most as we'd been dealing with no hot water or hardly any and hardly any pressure, it just trickles out so you can barely even have a shower. The Radisson was a normal hotel you get back home with super water pressure. It was heaven :)
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