Trip to Kathmandu

After breakfast we packed our bags and headed to the hotel lobby to bid goodbye to Sujay and take the bus to the airport. Seven of us are going on to Nepal, the other six are headed home on a later flight with Sujay, who is returning home to Delhi. Another OAT employee arranged with a trustworthy porter to take all bags, but non-travelers are not allowed anywhere in the air terminal for security reasons. Thus, I was given the e-ticket print-out and designated as "the leader." I did manage to get boarding passes for everyone and get us through immigration and security, but my tour leader skills from China and Nottingham were insufficient to work magic on a delayed flight. Because of fog in Delhi, the plane coming from there and going on to Kathmandu could not take off. We were delayed more than three hours. Air India served us a snack in the airport by way of apology. It was awful.

Our first glimpse of Kathmandu from the air

We eventually got off the ground, and I resumed my "leader" role in keeping us together through immigration and customs, and finally getting our luggage claimed at a somewhat ragged and very slow Kathmandu airport. Outside the terminal we spotted a guy holding up an OAT sign, who turned out to be Sanjib, our Nepalese tour director. He got us into a van for the trip to the hotel, and welcomed us with yellow scarves, which were much less of a problem than marigolds. The traffic through the city made Indian traffic look mild. It's not chaos here, it's gridlock. Even though the main city streets are both wider and in better repair than in places like Varanasi or Khajuraho, nothing moves for long periods of time.

Fancy digs! Bathroom of our Kathmandu resort.

We eventually arrived at Gokarna Forest Resort on the outskirts of Kathmandu. It's another high class place, with several restaurants, spa, large golf course, etc. We found our room to be very nice, then met in the golf club house bar-be-que restaurant for a welcome dinner of chicken Florentine and French fries. Not an auspicious start.

We awoke to find deer outside our window -- just like home!