Exploring Nepal 🇳🇵First day in Kathmandu (#2)

Hi dear Hive community,

The landing was a very relieving experience due to long days spent traveling from airport to airport. We landed in Kathmandu at 1 AM, but of course we needed to arrange visa first. The procedure was quite simple, you could file the form online and after paying 125$ for 90 days, we were ready to go. We needed some Nepali rupees, so we stopped at the airport ATM. Even though we used our Mastercard, still we were charged with 700 rupees. On top of that the ATM ate Tamara’s credit card. Which we luckily already got back, but about that more in the next post. Finally, we were ready to go outside and get the first taste of this mega city. It has 845,767 inhabitants, however together with all the outskirts around 2 millions.

Now we were searching for a place to sleep and taxi driving us there. That was a challenging task because there were hundreds of taxi drivers waiting to overcharge European newcomers. We were lucky to find a nice guy offering us a ride and a local place where we could stay for the night. By accident we run into Mim (new Nepali friend from the airplane), which confirmed that this is a good deal.

After reaching we met some new local people with whom we had a small welcoming party. After a night of a proper sleep, we woke up in the morning excited to explore the new city. Steffen already knew it, as he was living here for 3 months.

The first impression was quite strong, as we were located in the outskirts of the city where usually no turist hang around. People were staring at us but generally very friendly and helpful.

To get the full experience we instead of taxi took a local bus to reach the city center called Thamel. Traffic here is crazy, you can see almost everything and people are overtaking and beeping all the time. Most challenging is crossing the street as we are used to zebras, traffic lights and people patiently waiting for us. Here all is upside down. You need quite some courage to just go and cross the street carefully cruising through lots of cars and motorbikes. Now we got used to it already and it’s no problem for us at all.

Reaching our destination, we first went to find a local place to have lunch. We ordered typical food called momos. They were delicious. With full belly’s we just walked around the neighborhood observing people, places and surroundings. Everything was very very different from the Western world. After you get used to it, it is a really interesting change. You slowly come to realization that you don’t need much in life to live a happy and fulfilling life.

Time passed super fast here and soon it was already 16:30. We headed down to the Durbar square to see the most famous market places and temples - Nautalle Durbar and Kumari Chouk.

After some more food we were already headed back home. Here people wake up with sun, and go to sleep early when there is night. This time we took a taxi, the bus rides normally stops pretty early. To get the drive cheaper or buy things at the shops, you must always bargain. People expect that and as well, initially they always put much more higher prices.

See you in the next one 🙏🏽