Hi All,

It has been quite a while since our last posting. We are now (5 Apr) in Kathmandu since 1 April. The weather is still quite cold despite winter already ended last month.

Kathmandu is a very busy city with movements everywhere – cars, motorcycles, rickshaws, bicycles and people moving in all directions, left right, front back, top & below, just like an army of ants marching. The honking of cars, buses, lorries, motorcycles and even bicycles is another issue of concern, so you need to have ear plugs to keep you sane. You also need a face mask to keep the dust out of the nose and mouth. If you have mastered ‘tai-chi’ then you could move easier on the streets because you can manoeuvre your way in between motorcycles, cars, rickshaws and bicycles easily. Hmmmm, ear plugs face mask and tai-chi, yeah what a combination !!!

Nepal people are very accommodating, helpful, humble and tolerant. We have a lot of respect for them. The majority are poor but despite the hardships they are facing in life, they are very hardworking and happy.

There are many hotels in Kathmandu and the room rates are as low as USD15 per night with plenty of choices. Within the 5 days in Kathmandu, we have stayed in 3 different hotels because the 1st one is a bit expensive, the 2nd hotel exercise their own way of supplying electricity, water and internet for their hotel’s customers and the 3rd one so far seems okay as we did not encounter any issue and they give us free breakfast unlike the first 2 though this 3rd hotel is cheaper. Move to a 4th hotel…… we are not sure yet ! So if you have the time and you are a bit resourceful, you can get quite a good bargain for hotels in Kathmandu.

The power supply in Nepal is under government control and will come on and off according to the time schedule. Hotels too are not exempted. Most hotels have generators to do their in-house power supply. So your time management capabilities must be good so that you can timely charge your phone, lap top, camera etc. Don’t worry after a few days in Kathmandu you will get used to it.

Our bike, the Black V is arriving Kathmandu on Sunday, 6 April and we are taking it out from the airport on Monday, 7 April. Black V has given us some drama and almost did not make it to Kathmandu. It was supposed to arrive in Kathmandu on 2 April but it didn’t. The forwarding agent that we entrusted to send the bike suddenly decided to increase the price by 250% from the original price at the very last hour. After a few days of ding & dong and ping & pong with our lawyer posting a letter right to their office door, they eventually agreed to send the bike. However, all these ding dong ping pong has cost us some extra money which we did not plan for.

So if anyone is planning to ship/airfreight out his bike from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia our advice is not to use this agent. You can contact us personally (zainal-b@hotmail.com) to check whether the agent you are engaging is the same one we had encountered. If you still decide to engage this agent, you should engage a lawyer as well, just in case.

We are heading to Pokhara, about 215 km west of Kathmandu next Tuesday, 8 April or Wednesday, 9 April. We plan to do a short mountain hiking over there. Meanwhile Celeste (the Trailing Spouse) has found something to do in Kathmandu. She is giving dance lessons to students at a local college. I am yet to find anything to do (or should I), so while Celeste is busy with her students, I will continue to walk around the city with my ear plugs, face mask and further practise my tai-chi skills because we still have more than a week to go in Nepal.

In terms of providing like/love rating levels for Kathmandu, our rating so far is 8/10. We love the people’s enthusiasm, hospitality, the weather, the good food the cheap hotels and of course, The Trailing Spouse is loving the shopping and I have to keep reminding her “panniers…not suitcase” otherwise I’ll have to get a side car just for the luggage.

Cheers,
Borneoman & Trailing Spouse On 2 Wheels

Attached Thumbnails