We got up at 6 to get picked up at 6:30 to go to the Paro airport. We got through immigration and security pretty quick, and then our flight was delayed by more than an hour because of weather in Kathmandu. We got a packed breakfast of a cheese sandwich, boiled egg, banana, and mango juice from the hotel. The airport was super cold, of course. The flight was fine once we boarded.
The Kathmandu airport was some sort of dystopian nightmare with poor signage, crowds of either rude or oblivious people, and arbitrary security and customs checks. It was the first time I’d had to get my carry-on scanned after disembarking just to go to baggage claim. The taxi stand was a huge scrum of signs and I paid a fake fixer $10 to do nothing, but we eventually found the driver from our hotel. Kathmandu is horribly dusty and crowded. There don’t seem to be any traffic lights, and cars, trucks, and scooters, weave back and forth across the centerline at will. There are tons of beggars and hustlers on the street, and everyone seems like they’d as soon rob you as help you.
The hotel room is very nice and the location is good. We ate at Yin Yang Thai Restaurant for a late lunch, and had Tom Ka soup, egg rolls, and vegetarian red curry. It was good. We checked out a couple of bookstores and bought some souvenirs and stuff. Pilgrim’s bookstore was cool and weird, with a ton of random stuff spread over multiple floors. We found some L. Ron Hubbard children’s books.
We took a circular route back to the hotel and stayed in for the night. I went out and bought two orders of momo from the Namaste fast food place in our alley for about $2. I got Gorkha (good), Tuborg (ok), and San Miguel (bad) beers from a corner store to have with dinner. Beers were $1.50 to $2.50 for tallboys at a convenience store. The TV options aren’t great and it doesn’t seem like a good idea to go out after dark here, so we watched the 40 Year Old Virgin on Netflix. Our Bhutan whisky bottle broke in my bag on the flight, so most of my clothes were soaked with boozed and I made a whisky puddle on the hotel lobby couch. I read about Nepal history in the Lonely Planet book that I borrowed from the hotel lobby, and it’s been a non-stop shitshow. The crown prince got drunk in 2001 and shot the entire royal family, then himself, in the palace, red-wedding style.
The Kathmandu airport was some sort of dystopian nightmare with poor signage, crowds of either rude or oblivious people, and arbitrary security and customs checks. It was the first time I’d had to get my carry-on scanned after disembarking just to go to baggage claim. The taxi stand was a huge scrum of signs and I paid a fake fixer $10 to do nothing, but we eventually found the driver from our hotel. Kathmandu is horribly dusty and crowded. There don’t seem to be any traffic lights, and cars, trucks, and scooters, weave back and forth across the centerline at will. There are tons of beggars and hustlers on the street, and everyone seems like they’d as soon rob you as help you.
The hotel room is very nice and the location is good. We ate at Yin Yang Thai Restaurant for a late lunch, and had Tom Ka soup, egg rolls, and vegetarian red curry. It was good. We checked out a couple of bookstores and bought some souvenirs and stuff. Pilgrim’s bookstore was cool and weird, with a ton of random stuff spread over multiple floors. We found some L. Ron Hubbard children’s books.
We took a circular route back to the hotel and stayed in for the night. I went out and bought two orders of momo from the Namaste fast food place in our alley for about $2. I got Gorkha (good), Tuborg (ok), and San Miguel (bad) beers from a corner store to have with dinner. Beers were $1.50 to $2.50 for tallboys at a convenience store. The TV options aren’t great and it doesn’t seem like a good idea to go out after dark here, so we watched the 40 Year Old Virgin on Netflix. Our Bhutan whisky bottle broke in my bag on the flight, so most of my clothes were soaked with boozed and I made a whisky puddle on the hotel lobby couch. I read about Nepal history in the Lonely Planet book that I borrowed from the hotel lobby, and it’s been a non-stop shitshow. The crown prince got drunk in 2001 and shot the entire royal family, then himself, in the palace, red-wedding style.
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