Fourth Leg and We Made it!!

We have arrived and Kathmandu is an assault on the senses!! As we descended to our landing we discovered that the city is enveloped in a smokey haze. As soon as you step off the plane onto the tarmac you are breathing in this smokey haze and the surgical masks that you were advised to bring but didn't, make sense.

The first challenge is to get out of the airport. It's chaos but we were among the first ones off so we got through in reasonably good time. The hassle is that you have to purchase a visitors permit before you leave the airport. Once the immigration officer gave us our visas we went to collect our bags. We had to show a security officer our luggage tickets and then we were officially in Nepal!

Outside the airport it's a crowded mess of people wanting to take your bags and drive you somewhere. Jon spotted the sign for our trekking company, our luggage was deposited in the trunk of a beat up old car, we were deposited in the back seat of said car and we were on our way.

The first thing the driver did was to drive forward over a sidewalk and right into traffic all the while honking his horn. I knew we were in for a wild ride and our driver did not disappoint. My first impression was that it was very similar to Peru or Mexico but much more crowded and intense. The electrical system is insane with big clumps of wires hanging all over the place. No one seems to bother much about the lanes and what appears as utter chaos actually has a weird sort of flow to it. Motorcycles weave in and out everywhere, vehicles pass each other any which way while brave pedestrians bodly step into this fray. Our driver was amazingly talented and deftly wove through this craziness and deposited us safely at our hotel.Read more