Arriving in Heathrow with a slightly belwildered smile, I soon relaxed after meeting up with Sarah and Natalie (two medical students who are working out here too). First impressions of the JetAirways flight were very positive with suprisingly spacious seats. The elegant Indian air hostesses put EasyJet to shame in their effortless smiles as they moved down the aisles. Excited chatter soon stopped on my part as I fell straight to sleep, only awoken by the strong turbulence and ensuing stench of multiple vomitting episodes my the man in front of me. Not pleasant.
Delhi airport was much as expected (ie fairly chaotic in a brilliant way). After feeling suitably felt-up after a full on body search in a "private" cubicle (thankfully by a woman), we were allowed to go straight through security with no hint of interest in what we might be carrying in our bags! (Even though everyone else had things scanned, they obviously thought we didn't look threatening enough to warrant a bag search ...)
Coming into Kathmandu airport was magnificent as we swoopped worryingly close to the mountains, allowing us a close view of the stepped farms on the steep hill sides. Once through the visa point etc, I was very thankful that we had organised a pick-up from the guesthouse because after 15 hours travelling, I would have struggled to deal with the swarm of men offering "cheap taxis".
As always, the initial journey from the airport is a bit of a culture shock as you are plunged right into the middle of dusty roads with no organisation to them. Lorries hooting and swerving into the seemingly oncoming traffic, and then a scooter rattling in between you and that swerving lorry. Interesting. Thankfully they all seem to know what they are doing and abide by some unwritten rules of the road.
I am staying in Bhaktapur in a guesthouse with Sarah and Natalie for the first few nights so as to not be totally alone and allow myself to acclimatise for a while. Pagoda guesthouse is brilliantly placed opposite an intricatly carved temple with very impressive elephant and tiger carvings protecting the steps to its entrance. It has a rooftop restuarant where we enjoyed our first Nepali curry at 7pm after which we went straight to sleep to recover from the lack of sleep on the flight.
Waking up this morning with a somewhat painful back, I realised that a wood-hard bed is not always great for the back as I was always told! Think my thermarest might make an appearance tonight ... Another important bit of information I have gathered is that they only have electricity for 11 hours per 24 hours at the moment. It works on a pre-planned timetable so today we have electricity before 8am, between 2pm and 4pm, and after 9pm! Glad I brought my headtorch!!
Today I have visited the hospital where the other two will be working and then wandered around town for a while. Being a single white female at this point, I was inevitably followed by many young men offering to be my guide and to show me their painting schools.
They were all very friendly and interesting to talk to with lots of local information. I will probably take one of them up on their offer sometime later in the week.
I have also managed to contact Krishna, the director of the project I will be working with. I am meeting him in Kathmandu tomorrow to chat, visit the village, and to meet the family I will be staying with. All sounds very promising!
I will keep you all posted as to how I get on and I will try to upload some photos at some point.
Keep in touch!
ElsieXXxx
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