To anticipate the answer to the question you might have in mind: no we did not arrive in Kathmandu on time, but one day late. Which is okay as we have a week here.
On our second last day in Hong Kong we heard that the typhoon Hagupit was heading towards Hong Kong. In the morning after breakfast we wanted to check in our luggage at the in-town check-in at the central station. But Thai did not accept check-ins for the flight as it was not sure weather the flight would happen or not. So we locked the big backpacks at the left luggage and went to have a stormy day out (and in). We went up to the 43nd floor of the Bank of China tower and watched the bad bad weather around the city. We had a coffee down in the attached coffee shop and watched the people fight with their umbrellas and get pushed around by the wind. At that time the storm signal was still as 3 which is “strong winds”. Which was right. We walked to a near mall (some of the way outside, but most of it on roofed walkways that go over the streets) and saw lots of people queueing for buses to get home asap and running to catch one of the last star ferries to get to Kowloon before the ferry service stopped. After early dinner we went back to our guesthouse using the double decker tram (the best and cheapest mode of transport there) and watching the people fight with their umbrellas again. Thats a really strange thing. They have typhoons regularly in or very close by Hong Kong. And still they try to stay dry using umbrellas. They don’t seem to learn what happens when umbrellas, and mostly they use the cheap ones, meet with stormy winds. We call the result umbrella-bodies (sounds better in german “Schirmleiche”)… When we arrived in the guesthouse the typhoon warning signal was already set to 8, which means the typhoon is just there. The typhoon didn’t hit the city fully though. It passed by a 120km away and hit mainland China the next day. But we had heavy rains and storm all night long which woke me up several times.
So the next day we got a cab to the central station at half past 5 in the morning only to learn there that our flight to Bangkok was cancelled. Great. So as soon as the Thai Airways counter opened we asked what the plan was. The girl called Thai Airways and some 15min later told us that she might book us onto the 12:45 flight, which we accepted. So we checked our luggage and got to the airport. We grabbed our food vouchers from Thai and rebooked our flight from Bangkok to Kathmandu for the next day. We were put on the stand-by list as the flight was fully booked – it’s climbing season. And the guys told us that we needed to pay for our accomodation in Bangkok ourselves as it was act of nature beyond control. At least Bangkok is quite cheap and we got a nice hotel there.
After spending the morning at the airport and trying to get as much out of the food vouchers as possible we got onto our Thai plane and started the flight (storm signal 3 was still on). That was one of the worst ascending phases I ever had. But after that the flight was great. Nice food and the alcohol was flowing. I can just advise you to fly Thai. That’s value for money!. The came around with the drinks trolley and we ordered a beer. Then the food came and they walked around the plane with wine bottles asking if one would like to have red or white with the food. We couldn’t finish our glass before they came again with the drinks trolly. I only ordered a water (I could have ordered another beer though) and she topped up my wine without asking me. Pfewww… After the meal a guy went through the plane with a bottle cognac and glasses. We didn’t take one. And again one guy walked the plane with the wine bottles. If we would have taken everything offered (without even asking) we would have had small 3 glasses of wine, two beer and one cognac. And that was only a 3 hour flight. Just imagine a Frankfurt-Bangkok flight.
Leaving the plane in Bangkok (not fully sober) I saw my name on a sign. The guy told us that our flight to Kathmandu the next day was confirmed. Cool. So we immigrated to Thailand (wohoo, another stamp in my passport, after not having one of Macau as the ferries were to expensive) happy that we get a 30 day visa on arrival. We grabbed our luggage, changed some dollars into Bhat and wanted to look for a taxi to take us to the hotel. Tom said I should look for my name again – maybe it worked again. He was more joking than anything else. And then we saw my name on a sign. The guy was picking us up to get to the hotel we just booked some hours earlier. A 5min drive later we were at the hotel, checked in and had a relaxed afternoon with tv, aircon, a nice room and the sandwiches we had left over from the Hong Kong food vouchers.
Next day we had the flight to Kathmandu. Still on the airport we got to know a nice couple. The are americans with dutch roots, are 63 and 67 of age and are travelling the world for more than 10 years now. Man, they have stories to tell! Funnily enough they were heading for the same hotel in Kathmandu. So after another wine and beer Thai flight we got picked up and checked in at the hotel Ganesh Himal. Since then we have dinner and breakfast together. They are fun.
We had our first day out in Kathmandu yesterday. And I would love to leave this city yet. It’s crowded, it only has very small streets with too many cars, motorbikes and bikes on it and you have the feeling that they want to kill you all the time. Then there are lots of people trying to sell you things like little statues, silver things, necklaces, pouches and stuff. Every second guy wants you to take his taxi or rikshaw, in the Thamel area (pretty similar to Khao San Road in Bangkok) they want to sell you clothes and pashmina and want to be your guide. And every second thing you hear is “Excuse me, Mam.”. The other parts are “good price”, “you need a guide?”, “where you want to go?”. It’s really annoying. I think we will be spending quite a lot of time in cafes and in front of internet-computers just to get off the road.
But to hang out a bit after all this sight seeing in the east asian cities will be a nice thing before hitting the Anapurna Circuit and losing some kilos.
