Kathmandu...

We are having a very difficult time finding our feet in Kathmandu. The best place to begin is always the beginning, and our visit is no exception, so here we go:

We stepped of the plane at the Kathmandu airport and already our preconceived expectations were challenged. Kathmandu is a city that technology forgot. Our visas were hand written and there was not even one computer involved during the entire process - not a problem, but very surprising. Once we collected our bags and headed out to find an ATM, we were bombarded with men all vying for our attention, trying to offer their taxi services or hotels or whatnot. The first thing we wanted to do was find an ATM, but the ATM was as sketchy as could be. The first two times we tried to make a withdrawal, we received an error message that said that "Your Bank is currently busy." We found this quite disconcerting, but with the aid of an ATM worker (?? job creation, I guess) we were directed to the "fast cash" option, which thankfully worked. We were still very, very nervous about the machine though, and contacted Matt's bank as soon as we found a computer. All seems to be okay, though - but it is just an emotionally exhausting way to begin a trip.

Fast forward... we find our hotel and check-in to the worst hotel room we have stayed in yet. The bathroom was practically falling apart, and I think that the cleaning procedure is nothing more than splashing everything with already dirty water. All of this we were ready to ignore, but the hotel is affiliated with a travel agency, who were hassling us at every chance. "Oh, you don't want to stay in Kathmandu for all 9 days, you will find is boring - you should take one of our overpriced treks." Or, "You should not rent bicycles to explore the valley - the traffic is too bad, it will take too long, you should hire our guide and driver." By the second day, between my disgust at the bathroom and Matt's anger towards the incessant sales people, we set out to find a new hotel room and had checked-out and rechecked-in to our new place by noon. We felt like we were finally ready to begin our visit to Nepal.

However, another thing at we did not anticipate was that the electricity is cut for over half the day, every day of the week because the grid is not able to support the demand for power. The power cuts are really not at convenient times either, so we didn't know what to do when we arrived back at our hotel room the first night at 7pm to no electricity until 10pm that evening. After the day we'd had, we kind of felt defeated and just went to bed rather than heading out to a cafe, as was our original plan - falling asleep to a cacophony of sounds, including generators, honking horns, shouting people and sirens. We have still not really figured out the power schedule, but are beginning to work around it. By the end, we will be experts I expect. Luckily this hotel room has one 24 hour light, but we were still just exhausted from trying to navigate Kathmandu and handle the continual surprises that it throws at us, so last night we were in bed by 8:30 yet again. Maybe one of these days we'll make it past 9pm.

The most recent thing that we found out about last night is that some mid to upper range restaurants add a total of 23% tax to your bill. 3% is a tourist tax (which we find infuriating because these places would not exist without tourists...I can guarantee that the locals can't afford them. Yet another cash grab we have to negotiate). The other 20% consists of a 10% service charge and a 10% VAP tax (I have no idea what this is and why only some places charge it and others don't). Because of the 13% worth of taxes that we didn't anticipate, we were short by 15NPR, which the waiter forgave but it was still embarrassing.

We have hope for today though, and largely have not given up hope about Kathmandu in general. We are optimistically anticipating that we have figured out most of the little eccentricities that make up this city, so that we can just concentrate on being here and enjoying it. Here is to having a great, stress-free day that lasts past 8:30pm!