Arrived in kathmandu

Arrived in one piece at Bangkok at 4 am on Thursday morning and I’m now sitting in Starbucks to wait out six and a half hours before the flight to Kathmandu. It’s a quiet and comfortable place to rest - soft armchairs and iced mochas. - and avoid the innumerable duty free and tourist shops.  

I had such a wonderful week in Melbourne - went to the Princess Theatre to see Hairspray, a great production of this quirky upbeat musical that has an underlying theme of racial discrimination, saw The Girl Who Played with Fire, the second movie of the Millenium trilogy, which I enjoyed as I did the first one and the books (for the intrigue and the theme of the sexual abuse of women– an issue of particular concern to me), caught up with the lovely Faith Teh, who cooked for the 7 week Ariya Nani retreat earlier this year, for iced coffee at Brunetti’s in Carlton, - and of course plenty of eating in and out and general hanging around with my dear family.  Slept like a log and stayed in til latish for me - 8ish – up until the last night when a few travel nerves started to present themselves. I also got into a bit of shopping –buying some more last minute “necessities” for the trip. With the help of Pix I just managed to get my pack closed and it was exactly 20 kilos on weigh-in at the check in counter - the limit. I also had three other pieces of hand luggage, which fortunately went uncommented on.

The flight set off around 11pm and all I wanted was to sleep – not eat an airline dinner at midnight –managed to drop off after an hour or so with the help of a bad movie, a Barrier Reef neck cushion,(a farewell/Christmas present from Pix), and my last sleeping tablet.  But not before a chat with the sweet 22 year old guy in the seat next to me who was heading off with a group of mates to get pissed at a full moon party and being entertained by the restless whingeing of a 2 year old in the seat behind me. Love hanging out in a confined space with 300 people – not! Breakfast came all too soon – 6amish Oz time – followed by a few episodes of old TV comedies to help pass the last bit of time before landing.

Here I am in Kathmandu -it’s foggy and smoggy at 3 in the arvo. Drove through crazy traffic, after the mad scramble of immigration queues and baggage collection at the airport, to get to the haven of the Ganesh Himal – a small hotel set in a back street near to but a bit away from the chaos of Thamel. It has a lovely garden and rooftop sitting space. The bed is comfortable and there’s  a bath in my ensuite – not sure yet if there will be enough hot water to enjoy it.