NEPAL!

We spent the rest of the day hanging out in the lounge and then we headed to a new gate (ever so reluctantly) to board our flight for Kathmandu.

That does say Kathmandu!

More airplanes!

I think all of us were asleep before we left the ground! I woke up to some curry chicken for dinner, but I think most of us slept through the meal (Chris didn’t even know they served one!). A few hours later we landed in Kathmandu.

Landed!

It was a surreal feeling to have the next phase of the expedition happening. All of the time and effort we had put into the previous months (any years planning) was actually coming together. 

You step off the plane and head down onto the tarmac to a waiting bus. This takes you to the terminal where you have to fill out some paperwork for a visitor’s visa. I was unsure as to how smoothly this part would go as you are at the mercy of the immigration officers. It was 11:00 at night, so they would either be looking forward to be heading home and push us through or grumpy that they were still working and make our lives miserable. I’m glad to report that it was the first and we made it through unscathed. $100 for the visa (thanks Okanagan College grant-in-aid) and a few stamps on the passport and I was welcomed into Nepal. Next stop Everest… nope- next stop customs! Again, dealing with the 30 bags and cases (we had picked up a few of our comrades from Mount Royal University) was quite the site.  We managed to get them all onto one trolley each and head to the scanners. To my surprise they let us walk right out! I think the cases had been handled in Hong Kong, so they were cleared through faster.

How much stuff do we have?

Out into the street; fight off 100’s of taxi drivers while looking for our trekking company’s transportation. 2 vans and a car. Again, pile all of the gear into and on top of the vehicles and off we go. It’s difficult to describe the road into the Thamel district of Kathmandu. It was night, so not much was happening, but there was burning garbage on the side of the road, dogs going through the garbage that wasn’t burning. Motorcycles driving by quite quickly and what seemed to be no rules. However, the system seems to work and we made it safely. 

Happy to be here!