The Road to Kathmandu

Our travels to Kathmandu were not very exciting believe it or not. In a nutshell it was about 36 hours of flights and lay-overs in airports. We first flew over night to Frankfort, Germany. Not a bad flight especially since I had an aisle seat and Tala had a window seat. Our next stop was Munich where we anticipated an eight hour lay-over and we planned to go into the city to explore (drink:) a little. However, our plans were ruined when we learned our flight from Frankfort was canceled and we were rebooked on a later flight. A hell of a thing to happen on our second flight of many but something that wasn't too surprising. So we spent our time in Munich like we did in Frankfort, in the airport. We did get a good lunch at a cafe in the airport and I had a tasty weisse beer. From Munich we had another long flight to Delhi. Again unremarkable. Delhi was a cluster f*%k. The airport is undergoing a lot of construction and the waiting area we were placed in was lacking in seats and food and drink options. We did the best we could to catch a little sleep. Finally after 6 hours of waiting we departed for Kathmandu.

The flight was only an hour and half long but our excitement made it seem longer. As we approached the airport the terrain became more rugged and you could see some mountains coming through the clouds. Very cool. Also you could see some of the tops of the hills cleared off for houses and the land was terraced for farming. Once we landed we collected our bags and went through customs very easily. The airport wasn't very busy at all. As we walked outside I quickly spotted our guide, Gelu, who would take us to our hotel. Let me tell you Kathmandu has the craziest traffic I've ever seen. First they drive on the left side of the road, but lanes don't seem to matter much anyway. The streets are narrow and clogged with people walking, cyclos pedaling, motorcycles weaving in and out, cars doing a little of the same and everyone getting out of the way of the large trucks. The streets are dirty and trash dumps seems to be any clear place on the road side (http://i450.photobucket.com/albums/qq229/Cecilwolf/Picture035.jpg). Tala even saw a monkey jump out in front of our car. We made it to the hotel safely and checked in and had a drink with Gelu. After he left us we retired to our room to get some much needed rest and prepare to explore the city the next day.