First Days Impressions
I didn’t realize until I picked up my tickets that I would be spending the night in Bangkok, so I was a bit ill prepared. Traveling in Asia is different than Europe. I certainly felt that I stood out more. I realized I was half way around the world by myself, and it was quite a shock, especially after about 24 hours of travel. I booked a hotel and taxi, and got a guided tour for the morning.
Driving was quite different. I’ve been to London where they drive on the wrong side of the road, but the driving in Bangkok was a bit more crazy. There was a lot of horn honking, and driving down alleys and such. The motorcycles weave in and out of traffic, and people don’t pay much attention to the lines.
After checking into my hotel, a man followed me out of the entry. I figured he wanted to carry my bags, or show me a room. But, here’s the conversation:
“First time in Thailand? We hab very good night life here! Get you lady friend, show you round, have good time!”
“Thanks, but I’m pretty tired.”
“Oh, stay in? Want massage? Get you bootiful lady. She give good massage. Massage ebryting.”
“Thanks, but I don’t think so.”
“Oh. Just want massage?”
“No, I think I’m just going to sleep.”
“Oh. Ok.”
The next morning I thought I had a group tour, but I had a private guide and driver for about $15 US. They took me to several temples, and out on to the river. It was very nice. I was in a bit of culture shock, feeling very much out of my element. However, many people in Thailand speak English, so I was able to communicate fine. But I felt like I was tip toeing, not being used to the local customs. My guide was very nice, but didn’t realize my plane left at 2 in the afternoon, she thought it was at night, so we had quite a rush to the airport. However, in Nepali fashion, the plane was delayed an hour.
It was a short flight, relative to the 2 I had just taken (12 and 7 hours) only 2.5 hours. When I arrived at Kathmandu, I was expecting either a quaint town atmosphere, or a burgeoning western influenced community. I had neither. I don’t think anything could have prepared me for the experience. I met Kent and his friend Soli, and upon exiting the airport, we were swarmed by taxi drivers, people grabbing at us, asking for handouts and hotels. We got into a taxi to go to the hotel. As we started driving, Kent was trying to talk to me, but it was hard to concentrate. Kathmandu is a very dirty place, with people waling along the side of the road with cloths over their mouths because of all the exhaust. All the vehicles are diesel, and drive along a single lane road passing each other and motorized rikshaws. There was a lot of trash along the side of the road, and I realized I was in a developing country. I had to tell Kent to wait until we got to the hotel to tell me anything. We went up and down hills over roads that were barely roads, with people and animals swarming around. It was a little disturbing.
We arrived at the hotel, and I was finally able to relax a little. It had taken me 36 hours to reach here, and it was quite exhausting. It was very nice, however, to see a familiar face. We had some dinner and walked around the market. We decided to go trekking first, and rafting later, so we planned to take a bus the next day to Pokhara (POKE – a – rah ). Great. Another day of travel. 7 hours on a bus. It was a bit nicer than the plane, because I was able to see the country, and get a little closer to the people, but a lot of scenery along the way of the population was the same. Poor, selling what they could to travelers, watching the buses and cars go by. It took a while to get used to, or maybe de-sensitized to, but it did make me sad. We arrived in Pokhara and again were swarmed by taxi drivers. Fortunately, Kent is very shrewd, and found us a taxi to a hotel, which was quite nice.
Pokhara is a lakeside town, with hills rising up all around. I liked it better than Kathmandu, for sure, but it was still much of the same. The pace is not as crazy here, and it caters much more to the trekkers. Our hotel was quite nice, for about $5 a day, with a private bath. On the roof was a beautiful grass garden that looked out over the lake, and you could see a few peaks from there. This was the cheaper side of travelling. We ate dinner and prepared for a 10 day trek into Annapurna, to reach the Annapurna base camp at 4100m.