Day 3: Abu Dhabi to Kathmandu

Halfway through writing yesterday's post, Thomas turned to me and said "Are you enjoying being incontinent number two?" As much as it made me chuckle at the time, I'm fairly sure he was referring to our touchdown in UAE being our first venture into the second continent of our trip, and first steps (ever!) into Asia, and not in fact a reference to a lack of voluntary control when it comes to needing the toilet. In some twisted tempt of fate though, I think the universe was laughing at us, because it wasn't long before Thomas became incontinent number one for real, coming down with something of a swirling illness. Still though, we did have another flight to catch, and after barely 6 hours of sleep in the Premier Inn (where we didn't even get time to sample the pool!), we were off again, shuttle bussing our way back to the airport amongst perhaps the only rain deserty Abu Dhabi might experience all year. Thankfully, its airport was decked out with plenty of facilities for Thomas, and we were officially making headway for Kathmandu after the bizarre repeated chanting of 'Allahu Akbar' over the tannoy on our Air Arabia flight take off.

In our eagerness, we might've mistaken nearly every cloud for some glaciated Himalayan peak, but when we finally descended through the haze, we laid eyes upon Kathmandu for the first time, sprawling out in every direction as far as the eye could see. The next task was something of a confusing one as we navigated the visa application process, our own Britishness probably working against us as we incorrectly joined pretty much every queue in immigration. In fact, by the time we'd figured it all out, there was no one left manning passport control to even let us in. Eventually though, we made our way through and bought SIM cards and a taxi ride into town from some friendly faces, so friendly in fact that we thought they might have been scamming us, but they can't have done because we each spent only £4.16 on 20 GB SIM cards, and £2.68 on the taxi. A personal highlight was one guy trying to give me his business card as a local mountain guide, only for, when I tried to take it, he said I couldn't because it was his only copy lol.

Still, the taxi ride through the city was an overload of the senses: cars honking and swerving recklessly, monkeys running between people, narrow twisting streets crammed with interesting trinkets. Before long, we'd arrived at Hotel Premium, and boy, is it premium here (and it better be for £3.68 each a night.) Taking some short time to relax, we suddenly remembered that eating was a thing you're sort of supposed to do, and headed up to the rooftop restaurant for a hearty vegetable curry. It's not based on a lot, but I think we both love Nepal so far! And with that sentiment we returned to our room, where I finally put pen to paper on the contract for my job starting in September and we drifted off into a deep slumber.Read more