Plane to Kathmandu left at 10:25 and we got to the airport with time to spare, except that Bryan had forgotten his camera bag and he had to rush back to the guest house and back (30 minutes) while I checked the bags, but since this is India the plane was later than we were. The height of Indian bureaucracy was when we finally were all crowded into the waiting room we were made to take a bus – literally squashed in – to the plane, only maybe 25 yards from the terminal. The bus hardly had room for a u-turn and then we piled out. I counted 14 employees standing around the boarding ramp watching this all.
We had a lovely flight into Nepal and I’m sure I saw Mt. Everest. However under the clouds it was too overcast to see much of the surrounding mountains. I hope it clears tomorrow. Right now the weather is cool and pleasant. Lovely country, very friendly people but they don’t pay much attention to you, which is good. There are many tourist and “freaks” who have their own society here I imagine. We came in on the plane with a Smithsonian Intuition Study Tour which goes on later to Butan. That would be terribly interesting because it is only open for tours. They’re staying at the most expensive hotels; here in Kathmandu it is the Yak and Yeti Hotel (yes, really) at $40/night double. Ours is much more basic at $7.50/night and called Hotel Cozy. The location is good but we found another called the Guest House for $5. which looks even more pleasant and quiet. A hot shower sure felt good since our room in New Delhi didn’t have one.
We wandered around getting our bearings and deciding what to do. Settled on going to a game park for animal viewing since the weather isn’t clear enough for mountain vistas – a big splurge at $150/night but you can ride elephants into the game park and maybe see tigers. This is called Elephant Tented Camp; it’s big brother, Tiger Tops, costs twice that.
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