Arrival in Kathmandu

I'm sitting here in a low speed cybercafe in Kathmandu feeling woozy with extraordinary activity going on in my bowels. Apparently these are some of the symptoms of reactions to altitude differences. I was also taking a while adjusting to attitude differences.

I had the dilemma of interpreting to different sources of information. My friends in Delhi tell me that Indian rupees are acceptable currency for paying for the tourist visa on arrival in Kathmandu airport, but my guidebook tells me that 500 Indian rupee notes are not being accepted in Nepal because of forgery fears (good old neighbourly love). I thought I'd go with the flow and see whether my Indian rupees are changeable and if not, just withdraw at the money exchange office with my credit card.

So after a decent flight into a chilled out 20 degree C Kathmandu I encountered the massive "no visa" queue for people purchasing visas on arrival. After squeezing past some tourists filling forms I found some free forms and then a bit of light elbow coercion got me a spot to fill in my disembarkation (arrival for the vocab. challenged) and visa forms. After filling them up and queuing, I noticed a sign saying that certain currencies were acceptable for the visa fee and they did not include neither Indian nor Nepali rupees. I enquired at the money exchange office and the guy there said I need to get dollars or euros. He didn't want my Indian rupees and couldn't extract dollars from my credit card. I had to go to an ATM at the exterior of the airport (What?!).

Essentially I had to go past the immigration, past the luggage claim hall, past the arrivals lounge and towards the car park. And I did. For an hour or so I was in Nepali territory illegally, with the help of immigration officials (who just said, come back quick when u got the money) and security. I found the ATM and stuck my card in. I plugged in the wrong amount so I had to start again. Selected the right amount of money this time but then got timed out! (They say there is no hurry in Nepal...just like in Kenya...but it seems this particular ATM is made in Germany)."OK, maybe its a visa card thing", said the very helpful ATM guard. So I pushed in my Mastercard. Same story after many tries. Guard then asked me to follow him into the departures area (I was by now getting used to these casual security breaches) and explained to his colleagues my situation. I was beginning to wonder how many people he had helped out that day. There was a money exchange place that could actually withdraw cash for me.

So I got the money and exchanged the relevant amount into dollars and like a salmon went upstream through arrivals back into the immigration queue. By this time, other flights were arriving and so the queue never really reduced. I got the visa and then had to sift thru a pile of luggage to find mine since the conveyors were off and most people had taken their baggage.

I had to wait for about 45 minutes for my pickup since my arrival time turned out sketchy. Basically, the voluntary organisation had organised a guest house stay for me for the duration of my training and a rep. had picked me up. See website: http://www.ktmpeaceguesthouse.com/. The wait was not too bad. I was being entertained by tour company reps and drivers who were flashing their signs and passing by asking me whether I'm Mr. Cohen or Mr. Smith, if I got a hotel to stay in, if Im interested in white water rafting etc. The usual sales ploys but on the whole friendly and not too intimidating.

Raz, the friendly guest house manager collaborates with the volunteer programme to host volunteers during training. He explained the week long religious holiday that is going on and how things will a take little longer than the usual. As I was walking down the narrow steps in quick leaps to the guest house he told me to take it slow. He could tell I'm one of those big city types. Slow is the word: slow internet connections, slow trekking to prevent altitude sickness, slow to rise in the morning, slow in the holidays, slow to depose a brutal monarchy (whoops). Let me stop there as politics is a touchy subject here.

I met Rabyn, one of the programme coordinators today. He just gave me brisk tour of the Thamel area of Kathmandu which is crammed with touristy activities, bazaars etc. Will write more about the place and crazy goings on soon.

Cheers,
K.