GETTING TO JAPAN… TO 2nd DECEMBER

TO KATHMANDU
We were up early in the morning to meet the hotel jeep that was taking us to the bus stop. Due to the recently lost items (not mentioning any names Dylan), we had been extra vigilant and packed the night before, up early enough to double check that we had everything, double checking a couple of times. We had breakfast and arrived for the hotel jeep early – yes that’s right WE were EARLY!!!! After hanging around for a couple of people still packing we were squeezed onto the jeep and headed off to the bus stop where our posh tourist bus was waiting for us (posh – the only differences we could was that the luggage on the roof was roped down and we had “air con” which consisted of a fan stuck attached to the wall – and didn’t actually function). It was then after all our planning (and me mocking Dylan for our losses) that I realised I had left a bag with the lap top on the bench outside the hotel when we had got into the jeep!!!!! Dylan cursed me and then had to go back to the hotel with the manager, leaving me to sit and worry by the bus. A trip that should have taken them around 10 minutes and as I had noticed straight away I thought all would be fine, however 15-20 minutes later he still wasn’t back so I worried and worried. 20 minutes on he came back thankfully with the bag in his hands, I was so relieved but could have killed them for being so long, apparently they had had to wait for the late people who had taken too long packing, to finish and bring them along (don’t you hate that?). That is the last time I mocked Dylan for losing our stuff, we are now officially even.

The bus to Kathmandu was another long trip, we got there around 4pm, yet more touts at the station to taxi us to the centre. We did the usual shopping around with the hotels and got what we thought was quite a good bargain at Hotel Down Town, we even had hot water! We had a wander around the Thamel area where we were staying, we had been warned about the pollution and dust but in the evening, although bright and busy, didn’t seem that bad so we were quite pleased. We went in search for food and ended up at New Orleans Cafe Bar and low and behold they had real Australian wine – was this heaven???? Of course I had a glass of quite expensive wine, but it was worth every penny, so much so that I ended up having 2. Dylan stayed on the beers and after dinner and a long bus ride I thought it was time for bed. However Dylan had different plans and after a few cocktails at a bar that I think was trying to be Irish I was quite happy to stay out a little longer. So after chatting to a few travellers and a few more drinks I helped Dylan back to the hotel for a good nights sleep.

The goodnight sleep was short lived, we were in a room overlooking the main road so the noise started as soon as the sun came up. With heavy heads we decided we might as well get up and start the day, so breakfast, a search for a laundry service (no luck we still haven’t cleaned our clothes yet!) and then we booked our bus for the next day to get us to the Nepal border. We didn’t realise before booking that there is only one tourist bus a day and were lucky, we ended up with the last 2 seats, although a little pricey, $10 each for 350-400km, we gladly took them, our second tourist bus – we were starting to travel in style!!!

We then decided it was time to do the tourist thing and head to Durbar Square, where the city’s kings were once crowned and legitimised. In the Lonely Planet it states that the scenic route takes about 2 hours to get there so we thought we’d give it a go, there is a little map in the book to help you get there, this map would have been handy if it represented any sense of real scale and we had known where we were to start the walk, so instead I decided I knew the general direction and got us there in about the 2 hours with a quick detour to another temple. In the light and heat of the day we became aware of what the other travellers had told us. It gets very dusty during the day, another problem is the plastic rubbish, collected from the day before and left in piles in the middle of the road it is burnt in the mornings so the smoke really catches your throat, so much so that we ended up buying face masks, this was not as enjoyable walk a walk as the walks in Chitwan or Pokhara!!! We got to Durbar Square and after a few pics and a sit down to take in the architecture and atmosphere we headed back. Dylans wise words before setting off were “lets put the book away as it’s no help anyway”, 3 hours later we still had no idea where we were where (Dylan: as, Helen had indicated “It’s a straight forward enough walk anyway”), every time we asked for directions the locals would look puzzled and then agree with whatever we would say “yes, yes, yes, down the road, just there”. Normally it would only be Dylan’s complaints that I would have to put up with, but we had started to notice as we were walking along more and more riot police who seemed to be stopping traffic from coming along the main roads, people were also shutting up their shops rather quickly. A little worried and not sure what was going on we quickened our pace and eventually got back.

(Following a long period of spelling correction I’ve carried over the typing… [lol!!])

LEAVING KATHMANDU
We also managed to avoid the surprise riots that kicked off the morning we left KATHMANDU – apparently student were running amok in the streets along our taxi route at 6am so we had to take a detour around bumpy back streets at a cost of 500 kleggies* rather than the expected 150… Had we not seen the riot police and early shop closings the night before I might have suspected he was going to offer me a massage as a final fleecing too!

* Kleggies: A North Eastern (UK obviously) term for that currency that is just not British!

GETTING THROUGH THE BORDER
We got the bus to Sunauli (the Nepal/Indian border) and bartered a deduction on the room above the restaurant we ate in when coming through the border to Nepal earlier in the trip. The room was OK with the usual single beds pushed together and wafer thin mattresses but it was pretty clean (by the standards we are becoming accustomed to lately and certainly not the standards of the ever-cleaning-Mrs-Binding!) and we had a T.V so we could keep up to date with the goings on in Mumbai and Bangkok, as stated before our timing is magic!

We had a meal in the restaurant and after enduring about three powercuts decided to cut our losses and head up the stairs. All was OK until about midnight when a couple of the workers seemed to become incapable of hearing each other and clearly forgot there happened to be guests around – after about 10 minutes of exceedingly annoying shouting and banging near enough right outside our door I decided to ask them to shut it! They apologised profusely and then were good enough to wait until I shut the door before continuing in somewhat unnecessarily loud voices – CLOWNS! This, along with the public buses beaping right outside the hotel all night, kept us up. I remember at one point asking Helen the time, when we both realised it was only around 3.30am we both laughed in dissbelief, surely it had to be later than that, we can’t only be at 3.30am!

We had a fairly early rise (no problems getting up as we had never slept) and headed out for the bus. Fortunately we’ve gotten used to use pushing, jostling and lies of the touts and are quite happy to barge back through them just nodding with a simple glaze on our faces (sometimes I enjoy just shouting at them). We were surprised to see a dutch couple we had met earlier who were intending to go to Varenasi but they had encountered their first “Indian border tout” that overcharged them for a bus ride and then aggressively insisted on more rupees for their bags – they disagreed and then felt quite threatened by this muppet and his threats and decided to leave his bus and try going through Gorakhapur instead – if you ever go through the Nepal/Indial border then read up on the usual scams on the web and in a decent book such as the Lonely Planet.

The bus ride was uneventful – as we speeded through the bumpy roads and narrowly missed several animals, children, cyclists, motor cyclists, rickshawes, horse and carts, buffello and carts, tractors, busses, wagons and bridges – but nothing we’re not used to now.

GETTING TO DELHI
We waited in the Upper Class lounge for 3-4 hours during which time only a couple of things happened…

• I bought a paper and managed to get about three words on the crossword before getting bored
• I tried to buy some noodles from a stall – After asking for them to be warmed up the chap put the tin foiled covered “noodles” into a microwave (odd I thought); after unwrapping my noodles I wasn’t too surprised to find they were cold (given the microwave was never actually switched on, we just waited for a minute of two!) but I was surprised to find that it was actually mancky looking rice. When I confronted the shop-keeper he gladly informed me that there were no noodles – I insisted I’d requested noodles and he reiterated that there were none – I had a word and got a refund!
• I made 2 more attempts at acquiring some noodles and decided to purchase bananas and a a packet of biscuits instead – I think noodles at the train station is just another lie

The train arrived and we embarked. We shared a cabin with two doctors – Helen got the name as one Dr. SheetBalls and in shock didn’t get the other one. Dr. SheetBalls snored most of the way and the other Dr. was quiet enough until he needed to clear his throat (several noisy attempts first) at about 2-3am! – Not the best nights’ sleep – just as well I fell asleep at 7pm!!!! H – I wasn’t so lucky with the early night and had a lovely snoring duet coming from Sheetballs and Dylan, with the other doctor adding and occasional solo hockle ever now and again – lovely!

DELHI AGAIN
We arrived in Delhi and stayed in the “upper class” lounge – well, we stayed in the “air conditioned upper class” lounge. Again, fairly uneventful…

• We bought another book for Helen as she’s now turned to reading a book an evening with the constant early nights (as we retire when the mosquitos start attacking at dusk)
• Oh the joy. We decided to try our luck with an auto rickshaw as this was one of the few methods of suicide we’d not yet tried in Nepal or India. Unfortunately the roads were pretty quiet on our 15k ride as we were hoping for lots of good photos of us on two (of the three) wheels squeezing between buses and narrow gaps in the traffic! We had a cheeky photo or two and will upload these tomorrow (free wifi at this hostel) now we’ve bought a new XD card and card reader.
• After a couple of hours, the heat (the air conditioning wasn’t working and I suspect it never had) and the smell coming from the toilet (I had entered earlier to get some toilet roll for my nose and decided to use my sleeves instead) drove us out onto the platform.
• After being as good as accosted by an over-zealous tout (I’d seen him follow me after leaving my bag with Helen outside the closed tourist info office whilst I had a peruse around the taxi area) I ended up blasting him (verbally of course) to the point he absolutely understood that I knew the correct fare for the taxi and didn’t require him to walk me to a taxi that I didn’t yet require.

AND THEN THE AIRPORT
After arriving at the International Airport about 11 hours early we took up residence in a cafe across the road and treated ourselves to a fizzy drink and piece of pizza; this lated a few hours as we stretched it out (to the dismay of the staff) whilst playing a ‘few’ rounds of cards. We’ve now agreed just how much we require a book of ‘card games’ as we’ve pretty much tired our current repatoire somewhat, Sh*t Head and Rummie!

Had a shower, got changed and then checked in to the airport 4 hours before the flight – impressively without any issues whatsoever (I’d expected to get my clothes stolen or plain and simply fleeced for the shower, thrust to the ground and searched going through customs, come to a sudden realisation I’d lost my passport at immigration; but, alas, our luck was changing and things were looking up…

THEN we got into the airport. It’s nearly finished and when it is I’m pretty sure it will be great. However, at the moment there is no ATM and there are no currency exchange facilities – nor can one pay for food by card; so two hungry travellers, airside with only Nepalese Rupees and credit cards in their pockets – our luck had certainly not changed – LOL!!! – we laughed this off (or rather Helen made me pretend to laugh it off but I was ever so slightly annoyed – moreso when given hope after being told I could cancel my boarding card and get past customs only for him to then conclude “but this is useless as the immigration will not let you past anyways” – OH how he must have laughed at the happiness then shock then dissapointment on my face!)

The gates opened and as we’d enjoyed ourselves so much we decided not to rush and join the pandamonia that seemed to ensue when the gate opened – surely we were not the only ones that had been previously allocated a specific seat?

BLING ON JAPAN
We’ve arrived well and safe in Tokyo after a 6/7 hour flight. The plane was quite cool as it had the usual movies etc. but I (Dylan) managed to wangle a brandy and Japanese lager, Helen a few real wines, for each round of drinks and the food was pretty good too! Also, we had a ‘travel cam’ playing on a big screen in front of everyone and you could see the pilots view which was quite good for the take off and landing but other than that it seems the pilot doesn’t see a great deal!!! However out of the window on our decent to Tokyo there was a great colourfull sunrise over the horizon, wish we could have got the camera out.

We didn’t realy sleep well on the plane and as we’re now 9 hours plus Greater Manchester Time today has been a bit of a battle to keep going so we would be able to sleep proper tonight. The hostel is really nice – the bedroom is simple but it’s clean and all we need. There’s a kitchen so we can get back to cutting costs and cooking for ourselves (I say cooking, we’ve just had boil in the bowl noodles and a cup of tea!) and theres a decent ‘living’ area for us all to sit in to use the computers, wifi, chill or watch T.V.

We wandered around the metro and streets of Japan looking for the Cathay Pacific office to see if we could get a handle on our options for flights if we can’t get to Bangkok. Basically we have to wait and see for another day or two and then if we need to change our flights we can do so at no charge – simple enough but as we can’t revisit a continent and have to travel in one direction we don’t have much choice. We’ve been looking around and H is currently reading up on Cambodia and we’ve checked out a PADI diving course there too so that’s a possibility and we will keep you posted.

We had our first authentic Japaneese lunch today, the place we chose didn’t have a word of English on the menu but the waiter was very friendly and helped us out. Dylan had noodles with mixed fish and I had tehn with soya sauce and mushrroms, we both finished them off with a green tea, very tasty. However I did have a lapse on sight of a Maccy D’s and ashamedly went and got a choc milkshake and cheese burger, we shared the burger but Dylan wasn’t getting any of the milkshake, it was a great guilty pleasure!!!!!!

So much for our early night, it is now 12am we have been kept up trying to work out where abouts in the world we will be by the end of the week, as soon as we decide we will let you know, however it’s off for a good nights sleep tomight and hopefully a well deserved lie in!!!

Hope all is well and good out there and keep us posted on the goings on!!

• Mum (Saunders) good luck with the hospital and let us know how it goes!
• Adam – Keep up the hard work with the bike etc. I’m sure it looks funny but stick at it!
• Lorne – good to hear from you, hope all is well at the stackyard, have a cold pint for us!
• Pete and Romie – we thought you had both vanished off the face of the earth, good to hear from you and look forward to the email.

Now … bed …