Today we arrived in Katmandu! It truly is incredible. After an 8 hour and 2 hour flight we finally got here. The 1st flight, which included dinner, lunch and on flight entertainment in the form of a computer/tv screen in the back of the chairs, was surprisingly smooth sailing and exciting. We arrived in Delhi at god knows what o’clock in the morning. It could have been England for all I knew, the landscape and airport facilities barely differed. But when we flew into Nepal it was like entering another world. We could see the green shimmering hills and snowy peaks of the Himalayers poking through the clouds and as we broke through the huts and houses appeared.
The blak windows in the huts looked like a thousand eyes staring at us as we touched down. It was beautiful and I had to admit that me and a couple of the other volunteers were holding back the tears.
We entered a rickety airport, where everything from the escalators to the conveyer belt broke and were fixed by screwdriver in the 10 minutes we were there.
We found our guides outside wearing P2 t-shirts, grinning and frantically beaconing us to our transport.
The next 4 hours were what could be described as culture shock, but would best be described as a culture “slap-in-the-face”.
We piled into a seriously small and unroadworthy but authentic looking bus. Our luggage flung onto the top we set of with our cheery guides Bal and Kyme!
The traffic was insane, there was colors and tooting horns everywhere, as well as a couple of near misses every other second. The roads were windy and woman in saris wizzed by in shops.
Now in the hotel, our home is complete with awesum dhal, bhat (rice) and achar (pickle).
I was pretty jetlagged but already loving the group of people I’m with. That night I slept amidst the tooting, shouting and hucking from outside the hotel window.
I’m so excited!
Mariam
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