In New Delhi airport, I said “bye bye” and “see you later” to my beautiful companions. They flew back to Germany while I took a later flight towards Kathmandu, Nepal. Nepal is my destination for the upcoming week. Not having prepared almost anything for the trip, I boarded the Royal Nepal Airlines and waited comfortably for the take-off.
The flight crew was dressed in traditional Nepali clothes. They seemed educated and friendly. The passengers, however, were a bit surprising. On boarding, a lot of passengers asked the hostesses where their seat were. I failed to understand the mystery in finding seat number 20 if you are standing beside seat number 11. Even if you are a first-timer, it does not take an extremely high IQ to observe the perfectly designed system of incremental numbering of the seats rows. It descended upon me that I was leaving civilisation to somewhere else and prayed for my soul.
My neighbour passenger across the aisle didn’t find it strange or creepy taking selfies with me without any sign of asking for permission. I tried to rotate my head to the other side so that I don’t ruin his beautiful selfie just to find out that he waited for me to look back to snap the picture. I tried to eye-contact him to understand the situation from his perspective and all he had to offer was a light smile and went on taking pictures of us. I gave up and smiled..
The time difference between Kathmandu and New Delhi was 15 minutes. What is this? Is it even worth it to have a different time-zone?
Landing in Kathmandu was smooth. The Visa-on-arrival procedure was extremely easy and even automated. A touch-screen machine you can use to make your application, you pay, you enter. The whole thing was half an hour or so and left me impressed with its efficiency. Not what I expected.
Outside the airport, you know, there are taxi drivers, guides, etc.. you should usually not hire any of them since the prices are exaggerated. Well, I did. I was tired and his offer was affordable for me. It was a $7 taxi ride to the hotel. Summit, the man who managed to convince me, had a relatively good English and a sense of humour. “Sir, you are going to a good hotel which means you have money. So I will charge you higher. hahahaha”. Although this sounds creepy, I still found it funny and honest. I said “I will bargain”. He said. Yes yes. “I put very high price, you bargain, then we are both happy”.
Kathmandu is swamped with motorbikes and small cars. Motorbikers have helmets unlike India. It was dusty! very dusty! and around one quarter of the people on the street had masks to protect them from the dust. They even had masks with fashionable patterns and flowers.
I spent the rest of the day sleeping and coughing! Except for a short walk in the evening, where I visited a kind of pharmacy where the girl had to wipe the dust of the medicine I ordered. I then went to a book store and picked up a book by a local author. “Arresting God in Kathmandu” was the title which sounds very blasphemous and contains stories of infidelities in Kathmandu. I started reading the book in the same day and paused my other reading. Maybe I can get a better feeling of this place!
It was my mother’s birthday today. I called her to greet her and wish her a healthy and beautiful year to come. A wonderful woman who did everything to bring us up and surround us with love and care. She always paid attention to our emotional intelligence and situational awareness. Thank you my lovely mother for being who you are..
