Namaste

At the airport yesterday in Kathmandu it was hot and sticky but it was to get even more tense. After clearing immigration you get your bags screened then another person checks them by hand. In Nepal it is illegal to leave the country with 500 and 1000 Rs notes which we had a few of (I know it is not the greateset crime of the 21st Century but still a crime) I cleared the search and being a good husband Mel had all the money so she was going to take the punishment!!!

The guy searched the bag inside and out as I watched and a bead of sweat gathered on Mels brow, he found the notes looked at me then Mel and waved us through the drama had a touch of anti climax to it. I secretly think Mel liked being a criminal warlord!!!

The departure lounge was small and crowded and had a funny smell to it or that could just have been that we were sat too close to the toilets and the great plumbing they have in Nepal. Our flight left on time for Delhi and seemed routine like most flights are till we hit turbulence and a lot of it. This was made worse as 30 minutes earlier we had taken the briefing because we were in charge of the emergency exit door so it was a bumpy 40 minutes till we landed safely at Delhi.

We had a few hours wait here and decided to calm our nerves with 2 beers that cost us 7 quid, but this made us forget about the flight as we just moaned about the beer prices!!!!

By now it was 8pm and we boarded our 2nd aircraft heading for Mumbai. It was like Groundhog Day as we got the same safety announcement and then the same snack served to us (it was the same airline) which was a bit bizarre and you can't eat 2 veggie kebabs in sweet bread in one day.

After landing at Mumbai it was back to usual and straight away a guy wanted money for lifting one bag from our trolley to the car seat about two feet away, needless to say he didn't get any. Next we had to tackle the cab driver who after 45 minutes of driving around found the hotel and then proceeded to try and get more money from us, again he was told NO.

We were just getting started though, by now it was closing in on 1am and we had been moving for most of the day. The room at the hotel was wrong and smelt like the urinal cleaner you use in blokes toilets, we later found out they had placed them under the beds and in the cupboards to make the room smell nice!!!

At reception Mel lost the plot again after they tried to charge us 3000Rs instead of 2000Rs for our room which we had not asked for, but after a quick rant this was sorted out and they were back on Mels wavelength and we had saved ourselves 1000Rs/14 quid!!!

Eventually through sheer exhaustion we drifted off to sleep but it was short lived as we needed to be at the train station for 8am to buy our onward tickets to Karmali. Again this was no straight forward task and after filling in forms and walking backwards and forwards for 30 minutes between 2 desks we eventually got our onward tickets.

Returned to our toilet smelling room where the smell had died off a bit as at about 2am I could stand it no longer and scrabbled around till I found all the little white tablets permeating the odour around the room and threw them from our 4th floor window which I know is reckless but when I looked afterwards they only fell 2 feet onto a ledge, but they would have served better use on the street as they use them to go to the bathroom anyway!!!

We changed rooms then decided to perk up our day with a walk to the Gateway to India built by the British in 1924 it was a disappointment as it was clothed in scaffolding the place was a building site and we were hot. We took refuge in Leopolds and ate curry and drank beer for a while, it is amazing how an ice cold beer can lift your spirits!!!!

Tomorrow morning we leave at 7am on the train South to Karmali to stay at Panjim for 3 days and visit Old Goa and the Portugese churches and take it easy for a while. It is a 12 hour journey through the day but we have paid for a bed each to catch up on our rest, just hope there is not too much scenery to see and we don't miss the train like we did when in Agra a few weeks ago.

Lots of Love

M & M

xx