So to recap the last few days, I said goodbye to my Ma in Regina, hopped on a plane at 7 am to Vancouver from Regina, and randomly met an old friend who had been trekking in Nepal a few months earlier, which was pretty sweet. We caught up a bit, and she gave me some last minute tips. I got to Vancouver and hung out for a bit, enjoyed my last bit of Canada and hopped aboard my plane to HK....It was pretty funny start to the trip as I was sitting next to a younger girl briefly and started chatting her up, then her father came over and said she should go sit by her mother as there was a free seat there...she put up a bit of a fight, probably because I'm an interesting character and she wanted to chat, but her father made her move so I got to sit next to him...fun times... ha ha. He ended up being an employee of Air Canada, and thus had to get out and go talk to staff members once every 30 minutes it seemed...a bit annoying since I was in the Aisle, so I had to move often...I'm not used to moving often when it comes to plane rides, but oh well. Several beers and some wine, plus numerous naps later I was in Hong Kong!
The visa entry process to HK was pretty easy, I think I was in the country and had a 90 days visitor visa within 15 minutes of landing...that's a win, considering I don't have a job, nor a means to support myself ha ha ha! I stopped by a convenience store and purchased my first Pocari Sweat (an Asian gatorade product which is awesome (and tastes like sweat according to my mate Dave) ) I crushed that with enjoyment of being in Asia again and enjoying the wacky culture. I had to wait for about an hour and a bit for Dave to land, so during this time I looked up the Chinese translation for Dave and drew it out on a piece of paper for when he arrived. It took a fair bit of ink, and I came to realize that calligraphy isn't my strongpoint, but I made a decent run at drawing Cantonese characters and awaited his arrival. "Dai Fu" arrived, and I presented him with a Cuban cigar that I had purchased at the duty free, and we were on our way to Nathan Road and the sketchy nature of our hostel area.... I was warned about many Chinese and Indians "touting" about the area where we were staying, and I wasn't disappointed, as I was offered drugs and cheap hostel accomodations within 3 minutes of arriving in the area, but I found my place and checked in.
Our mate Tim was in the area for the HK 7s which is a huge Rugby tournament, so we met up with Tim and started the shenanigans....we wandered about the tourist/costume packed area and had a pretty good time having some beers and catching up on the past few years....it was pretty good times, but I didn't bring my camera so I can't show you the exact crazy nature of the scene there, oh well. Dave has some decent photos, so I'm sure when he uploads them, you can see exactly what we were dealing with. Anyways, jet lag eventually struck, so we ripped back to the hostels and called it quits for the night.
Oh wait I also have an epic picture of Dave's plummer crack while he was packing his bag for the walk...see attached
I'm sitting across the table from him right now, and he's called me a jerk...so I think that was a fantastic photo btw.
So anyways, after wandering around HK for awhile, we headed back to the airport and took our flight over to Nepal....of course we tried several currency exchange booths to attempt to get some Nepalese currency, but no exchange places offer it...I'm thinking that there's just no Nepalese currency left in circulation, seeing as how I could only acquire $30 CAD worth of it before I left home.....So we took that flight, touched down in Dharka Bangladesh, and technically got our Bengal flags, then continued on to Kathmandu....Kathmandu airport is pretty much what you would expect from a third world country, no fancy restaurants, old brick building, and no modern tools, other than the camera which was handy for taking Visa photos...win!
Grabbed the necessary visa photo, paid the $40 US visa fee...thanks to Dave having US currency...best mate ever...and exited the airport to pushy/grabby Nepalese cab drivers....one grabbed Dave's bags and carried it to some random car saying "Kathmandu guest house"....Dave thought we were on the right course, until I spotted a van that said "Kathmandu guest house" on the side of it, and walked over there instead...Dave haggled for his bag and managed to secure it, then had to tip $5 US for walking his bag over from sketchy vehicle to our proper vehicle...tipping fail!
So we went through the crazy quiet streets of Kathmandu, arrived at our hotel and found they were double booked, and they sent us to some other sketchy hotel....after arriving at said hotel and checking in....we went for a late night wander and found 2 beers, 2 waters, and a box of pringles for $9 CAD..not bad....went back to hotel, had beers, passed out...fun times!
Woke up this morning, had a decent cheap breakfast and came to our original hotel, checked in, and actually received room we had booked, win!
I also almost got run over by cars and motorbikes several times, but there's a delicate honking system and traffic system that is absolute chaos yet seems to somehow work here, it's great.
So after wandering around aimlessly for the afternoon and training (my legs are so sore), we have now settled down for some beers and some WiFi in the cafe at our hotel building. We just met some cool Norwegian dude, and had a good chat with him, then he left to go find some friends, and didn't pay for his cigarettes, so they're now stuck on our tab...damn sneaky Norwegian..oh well maybe he'll be back.
Anyways, our plan for tomorrow may include hiring a motorbike for tomorrow (hope they come with helmets) and cruising around the Kathmandu valley....and other than that, we're just enjoying the cheap food and easy going nature of Kathmandu.
Also, I've discussed how these blog may revolve around Dave and what he's doing, so I'll recap....he's worn the same plaid shirt for the last 3 days...kind of smelly and embarrassing, but I've gotten used to it...also, he's attempted to be the early bird on several occasions but hasn't succeeded.
My battery is dying here so I should check out for now
