Nepal 1, Namaste

Where to start! I better explain that the first two weeks are with a company called Nature Trek and its a guided bird watching tour. I enjoy bird watching but nothing like my dad. He has been all over the world looking at birds and wildlife.
Anyway on with the show. At Heathrow airport we were ‘profiled’ by one of our soon to be, birding companions. Basically he identified us by our scruffy clothes, rucksacs and walking boots as “birdwatchers” and came to introduced himself. He then he earmarked the rest of the group. This was pretty impressive considering there where hundreds of people in departures. We are a big group 14 people and apparently this is unusual.
My Dad is nearly 85 and although he has no health issues he tells me he is having issues with his feet. Dont you believe it!

Have you heard of ‘ The Weeping Angels’ from Doctor Who? Well my dad is a Weeping Angel in reverse, blink and he gets further away. Twice I nearly lost him at Doha Airport as he marched on towards the connecting flight…. I’d glance at a sign only to find he’d moved another 50 feet along!

Flying to Kathmandu from the west I would recommend you have window seat A, because the veiws of the Himalaya’s are stunning! The mountains tower over the clouds covering the foothills and the snowy caps look like angular clouds themselves.

We were very transfixed by this sight but, not by the sight of Kathmandu Valley with its pollution, a visible yellow haze over the city. This impression did not improve on arrival, the pollution fumes hit me as we disembarked!
We were collected by our trip guide Suchit and the birdwatching immediately began!
Kathmandhu first impressions, its MAD! I had been warned by Richard about the rubbish and dust so I was not surprised and I think I’ll leave Kathmandu descriptions for when I’m there a bit longer and have a chance to explore.
We were only there for one night at the very swanky Royal Singi Hotel. Knackered from the journey we headed to the bar for a beer! This came in such a huge bottle we had to share!
My first attempts at Nepali were spectacular, in fact pretty much all the staff visited the bar to see the Nepali speaking European. I heard one waitress say to her colleague ‘she is speaking Nepali!’

I seemed to be distracting the staff so much the supervisor came over and chivvied them back to work!
My Dad was most impressed! In reality I was only getting about a fifth of what was being said but, my confidence rocketed.
Dad went for nap and I spent the the next few hours trying to sort out a series of fraudulent transactions on one of my credit cards. Typical! The one card that charges no fees to use it abroad, is now blocked! I only had the card a day as it arrived the morning we left! I have no chance of replacing it.

Later in the evening Urmila my Nepali tutor was able to join us for dinner. It was so lovely to meet her in person after months of lessons via Skype. She is so tiny and so dignified. I seriously wanted to give her a hug but, that’s not the done thing here, signs of affection are frowned upon (perhaps not so much in the towns). Anyway we had lots of smiles and good conversation partially in Nepali.
I’m pleased she came to dinner not least because she asked for one if my favourite Nepali dishes which was not on the menu, Mo Mo. Its a sort of meat or vegetable filled dumpling with a dipping sauce.
I gave her a gift of a bone china Prince Albert teacup, saucer and plate. Our lessons often revolve around food and tea drinking. Nepali traditionally drink their tea from a glass. Dad was just happy not to lug such a breakable thing any further, I really didnt think that through when I bought it, thank goodness for his hard shell case.

Next we head off to the Terai……