I arrived safely in Kathmandu early this morning shortly after 7:30am. The whole trip was uneventful. Surprisingly I manage to sleep through most of it, only to wake up to be fed about every 2 hours. In Halifax, I was able to check-in for all three legs of my flight to Nepal, and my luggage was checked in for Kathmandu as well. This made my two layovers pretty stress-free - didn't have to worry about reclaiming my luggage or running around trying to find the appropriate check-in kiosks. Especially at Heathrow, besides making it through securities and making it to my next boarding gate, there wouldn't have been time for much else.
I had heard so much good things about Qatar Airways that I was expecting quite an elaborate plane, but to my disappointment it didn't quite live up to the rumors - then again, I was flying economy... The flight from Doha to Kathmandu was a little strange. My original itinerary had stated that the flight departed at 12:45am (arriving in Kathmandu at 8:20am), but by the time I had arrived at the airport the flight had been bumped up to depart at 11:20pm. The strange part was that this is apparently quite normal for flights to be switched around without much notice. There was quite a bit of delay leaving Doha, so in the end we arrived "late" at 7:30am.
Getting a visa was pretty straightforward, and by the time I had gotten through my luggage was waiting for me at baggage claim (very thankful that it didn't get lost in transit!). Neer, our country coordinator, was waiting for me outside (thankfully he knew to check the flight times so came earlier). I was greeted with the Nepali version of a lei (made of these beautiful orange colour flowers) and some water (much needed) and cookies. Within less than half an hour i arrived at the house, my home for the next 6 weeks.

The taxi ride to the house was nothing less than chaotic. I felt like I was in some high speed car chase as our driver stealthily navigated his way through windy narrow rides, oncoming traffic, motorists, and, of course pedestrians. It was an adventure in itself!

The house is very nice. It's quite spacious. There's hot water, electricity, and even mineralized water for us to brush our teeth with and drink. There is a cook that makes all of our meals for us and two ladies that come in to help with the housework. Needless to say I'm very well taken care of here.
There are a bunch of volunteers here already, one big group from Queen's who will be leaving within the next 2 weeks and a handful of independent volunteers like myself who are here for another month or so. By Friday, all of the July-start volunteers will arrive and our Orientation will begin.

Since it was sunny out today i took the opportunity and walked around the tourist area of Kathmandu, aka Thamel. It's very busy, with lots of shops and restaurants catering to all tastes. Relatively speaking Thamel is much more expensive, but again this is relative. For example, a big plate of noodles in Thamel would cost around $3CAD vs outside of Thamel for $0.25! - so either way very affordable to eat out. (On a side note, my first meal in Nepal was bruschetta(?) and hummus dip - and here I was fully prepared to eat lentil curry (the local dish) for the next 6 weeks...)

I'm not quite sure what I think of Nepal yet (yes, it is only day 1). The culture shock isn't as great as I had anticipated. I'm glad I'm here with Volunteer Abroad (VA) rather than venturing on my own. It's great having the support around, they have made lots of contacts within the city which is comforting to know that someone is there to help if help is needed.

It does feel a little bit surreal that I'm actually here! So far I've only been to Thamel, and it's crazily busy, too many vendors, too much traffic - the incessant car honking is a little unnerving. But I'm told this is very non-representative of Nepal, so I'm looking forward to venturing away from Thamel in the weeks to come!

The rain started a short while ago so the temperature is feeling a bit cool. Exhaustion is starting to kick in, I'm not sure if it's the humidity or traveling (but i did sleep an awful lot throughout). I think my plan is just to lay low and hang out around the house until Orientation starts, after which hopefully I'll have more exciting things to share.

Love,
g.