Text 19435, 64 rader
Skriven 2014-11-15 06:20:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: Asia 286
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I am not fond of Kathmandu, as it turns out. It's dirty,
depressing, crowded, and money-grubbing, and knowing what I
now know I'd have stayed longer in beautiful but limited
Bhaktapur or limited but limited Pokhara.

We went on three walking tours. The first was through the
warrens that constitute the market district (fascinating
but a little disgusting); the second around the Durbar
Square, which though much more extensive than the one in
Bhaktapur is ever so much more grotty and dismal. Also
pretty poorly kept up, so the grand old temples all look
on the verge of falling apart. And the pigeons ... !
Our final walk, the morning of our departure, was around
and beyond Thamel and the various nearby temples, some of
which are pretty impressive. In our search for temples, we
somehow got turned around, or so I thought, and it was
getting late, so we asked a cop, who indicated that it was a
20 min walk back to our hotel, so we got a taxi. Wrong
choice. Turned out he took us along streets that I
recognized almost immediately, and we were just a few blocks
away from our digs to begin with. Oh, well. Three bucks,
easy come, easy go.

We got our traps together and had the guest house order us a
taxi to Tribhuvan, which trip was a bit quicker as we got to
take the main road (owing to construction, one way away from
the city. This was fine, but as we were getting our stuff
together at the terminal, I lost my neck wallet, which
instead of being around my neck was in the carryon and
apparently fell out. Luckily my passport was in my pocket,
so I did get to go. But it was a loss of 700 USD plus a not
insignificant quantity of baht, Sing dollars, and Euros.
Oh, well, a thousand bucks or two, easy come, easy go.

Speaking of which, security was pretty easy, check-in was a
snap, and immigration as well.

The Royal Silk lounge is a pleasant room with almost
reliable wi-fi and an ever vigilant staff (apparently there
is a lesser lounge nearby, and everyone tries to get into
this one instead).

Decent food, good drinks including bitter orange and mango
juices, Khukri rum (okay, not so good - too bitter, too
sweet), Hennessy VSOP.

Coriander fried chicken was pretty Thai tasting and pretty
delicious; potato puffs were standard.

Restrooms are outside and are none too clean. Also cold.

You have to go through another security before getting to
the plane; we went a bit early, sensible us; it does take a
while, and you want to allow enough time. On the other hand,
the post-security waiting area is very spartan and crowded,
so you don't want to allow too much time. We had a half hour
- borderline too much.

There was this guy from the lounge who seemed impatient and
uneasy. He seemed to think that wherever he was, the line
formed behind him. The ground staff indulged him.
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