All went quite smoothly as we landed in Bangkok last night. Walking to the immigration section was a task – easily a kilometre if not more. Our airport transfer was waiting, but took us to the wrong section of the hotel. Unfortunately that was only found out after us and all our luggage had been offloaded. The blank look on the face of the guy at reception didn’t make us feel comfortable. It wasn’t until I asked if there was a problem with the booking that he looked at me and said, ‘I think there’s a booking here, but it’s in the other building.’ He called the driver in, and yes, all our luggage was put back in the van, we loaded ourselves back in as well, and were then driven 50 metres to the other building.  We all checked-in, got the wifi code [!], most organised a 6:30 wake up call [which nobody got] and we ordered the return transfer for 8am.

Next morning all went smoothly again as we returned to Bangkok airport. The queue at immigration had hundreds and hundreds of people and it was the luck of the draw as to whether you were on a fast queue or not. This time the walk to Gate E2A was easily close to 2 kilometres, through huge and fancy arcades, designed to make you want to shop. None of us succumbed. After arriving at our gate, we then boarded a bus which took us half way back along the tarmac to our plane. Hand on … did we just walk all that way for nothing!

Must say …. all the food on Thai Airways was very good!

Arrival in Kathmandu was another tale. One of our group needed a passport photo for her entry visa, we all filled in multiple forms [including the gender options of male/female/other] and again, getting through lines for visa payments and approvals took its time. But I think the prize was Chris and I trying to buy Nepali SIM cards for our phones. The forms required – another passport photo, passport number, home address, address in Nepal, email address, gender [again 3 options], family members names, including the name of our grandfathers!!  As well as that, they took a thumbprint from each of us! We don’t even do that to buy a house in Australia! By the way, the total bill for all that paperwork, was the equivalent of $A2 per SIM!!

Then the airport transfer to the Tibet Guest House was definitely sensory overload, sights, sounds, smells. At each of our vans there were children begging through the open windows as we were stopped in traffic. We knew it could happen, but when it did, we carefully processed our responses and emotion. These children appeared to be carefully trained to tug at the heart strings. They certainly did.

But then there was the interesting as well. The rubbish everywhere just thrown on the streets, the cows, the roaming packs of dogs, dirt, dirt and more dirt, the stench of the river, the tiny shops lined up side by side continuously along the roads, the multiple options for food, drink, medicines. And the streets have no designation for pedestrians, just cars, vans, people, bikes, rickshaws, all manoeuvring around each other, with horns beeping continuously. And the electricity cables, hundreds of wires all tangled up together, along the streets, crossing the streets, vertically and horizontally. No wonder there are constant interruptions to the supply.

But there was also the fun though … seeing a ‘Department of Money Laundering’, and the ‘Department of Information’. Must be the ‘go to’ places.

A little later in the afternoon we wandered around the bazaar area for a good while and began to get a feel for a VERY different city. Many of our group have travelled extensively and commented that there was actually very little ‘in your face’ touting for business. The Nepali people are generally very shy. We found the colours and buildings so interesting. No area of land is wasted. Schools are on the top of shops, and even though it is quite hot and humid the school children were all walking home with formal uniforms and the girls were even wearing warm tights.

We shared a meal together at a restaurant near our guesthouse, and enjoyed some great Nepali hospitality.