I survived Kathmandu!!!

First impressions of Kathmandu...Noisy, chaotic, dirty, non existent safety, polluted, many stray dogs,

cows 

Monkeys

and traffic, lots and lots of traffic...

So I escaped to the garden of dreams where I met Ruth, a retired banker from Canada and we had lunch together in the "peace and quiet".

We then parted ways as I was off to Durbar square to see the temples.

I wasn't as impressed with them as I was with the Japanese temples. The rest of the day was spent getting used to Kathmandu and trying not to get food poisoning. 

The next day I walked to Patan which took a 3 hour round trip (the hotel receptionist laughed when I said I was walking so I was determined too, and I did - there and back! Along the way I saw a lot of poverty, monkeys and cows. There is a lot of dust in Nepal and a lot of people walk about with masks on for the pollution and when I got to Darbar square there were a lot of damaged temples due to the earthquake which was a shame, but I saw people rebuilding them. 

I then had lunch on a rooftop terrace while listening in to 3 men- American, Italian and Iranian, contemplating the meaning of life and religion. It was hilarious!







After I went to the golden temple and wandered through Thermal (the tourist area) and tried not to get run over, it consisted of lots of little shops and tourist shops and restaurants. I didn't meet anyone that day apart from a Nepalese child, but as my good friend Eve says it was better than nothing as her only friend in Largs for a year was a little old lady.

On Friday I caught the local bus to Bhaktapur which is an hour bus ride on a local bus from the city. The local bus was crazy, it was packed and had no seatbelts and just seemed to stop wherever it felt like to pick up passangers, but it only cost 20p. When I eventually arrived I paid £10 to get into the city as I was a tourist!

It was Nepal new year 2074 so they were celebrating.

I then met a an Austrian girl in the crowds called Tina and she introduced me to her hostel group, consisting of two German girls, two Australians, an Indian, a dutch girl called Caroline and someone from Switzerland. We all became friends and spent the rest of the day together before going back on the public bus to their hostel which was two minutes away from mine and had dinner there. We then went to the hole in the wall bar. In the bar, you have to take your shoes off and sit round a table at ground level (which is what most bars are like in Nepal). we then spent the evening with two Colombians, a dad and his son. They were really cool and I continually bumped into them for the rest of my stay. Everything shuts down at 11pm and it started hail-stoning golf ball size hailstones so we went home.

On Saturday my new friend Tina and I went to the monkey temple (Swayambhunath). Its 30 minute walk to this temple and is nicknamed this due to all the monkeys surrounding the place. They are considered holy as they were derived from the head-lice of the Buddha god. (we also bumped into the Colombians)

The temple was beautiful but crowded.

The views were amazing

There was even a monkey with an ice cream...best picture ever!




and after a lovely day together we went back to have dinner and drinks with a random we met, he was a Indian tour guide on a weekend break! He was nice though.




next day, I checked out only to be told the card machine wasn't working and I had to take money out of an ATM which charged me £4 :( and then the receptionist proceeded to ask me how long I stayed as he didn't seem to know and hand wrote me a receipt only when I asked...Typical Kathmandu. However we got to our "tourist" bus on time to go to Pokhara, which Tina complained was too expensive and in hindsight she was right as it was the craziest bus ride we had ever been on and toilet wi-fi and air con didn't even work.

Kathmandu, you are still dirty, overcrowded, polluted and crazy but after getting used to the place, meeting some people and proceeding to bump into them constantly, you were starting to feel a little bit like home,...just a little bit. Now I can definitely can say I survived Kathmandu, only problem is, all the backpackers were saying this was India lite. I'm definitely going to need a travel buddy if I go to India!!!

The journey begins....

I Said good bye to my mum and sister at the airport.

I boarded a flight to Paris with Air France hop. I ended up behind the only two children on board. I always have the worst luck on flights. However, I made a new friend called May. She lives in Edinburgh but is going back to Shanghai for two weeks to see family. We wandered round Paris airport together before going our separate ways. I then had to board a flight to Oman with Oman air.

Again I ended up sitting next to a crying baby and beside the toilets the whole night! All I heard was flushing toilets and people queuing up next to my seat all night! To top it all off, the veggie option was steamed carrots and broccoli. Along with a side plate of salad and fruit for dessert. The meat eaters ate what looked like sticky toffee pudding for dessert :(

Finally arrived at Oman which is mostly desert and I saw a mosque in the background but Oman looked like quite an interesting place.

However, I didn't get to see much of it as I had to sit in the airport for 7 hours! Luckily Netflix has Vampire Diaries...

Finally I ended up on the plane to Nepal only to realise I was one of only 3 girls (both were from Switzerland but didn't know each other)  on a full plane of men! We stuck together checking in and getting out of the airport which was a nightmare and became short lived friends as with all the commotion we forgot to exchange details. None of our drivers turned up, we had strange men trying to "help" us for money and when my driver finally turned up he took me to the wrong hotel. First thoughts on Kathmandu...Chaotic! But I have arrived!!!!!