12 June - Tibet - Zhangmu - Nepal - Kathmandu

Our guide had said breakfast @ 7.30am so we arrived on time to find the dining room dark with 1 light on & a huge round table set with bread, jam etc. so we take a seat and a lady appears with coffee & fried eggs. Then more courses of french fries & tomato omelet arrive ... As we survey this lot all the lights come on & we are surrounded by money changers who were happy to give us '15' ... So as you do, we changed our money, finished our meal & tip toed out of the lobby so we did not awake the ?? Security guard ?? stretched out on the sofa . The rest of the hotel was in darkness.
We proceeded at breakneck speed to the border so to be first in line which we were. The road was a little hairy & I just shut my eyes & hoped for the best.

After 1 & 1/2 hr wait the doors opened & we were escorted in. All of our bags got searched ( hope they enjoyed all the dirty laundry), then through passport control.
We were separated & I went through first after having to answer ??? Like my birthdate, place of birth etc then , as is our custom not to be separated, I waited nearby, only to be yelled at & told to wait outside ... Bizzarre as we were leaving the country.

Anyway, we were met as planned & escorted through to Nepal immigration where we got our visas, met our driver & set off on the 4 hour drive to Katmandu. I have to say that the road was shocking, bumpy, muddy, full of rockslides, narrow & of course no guardrails to be seen plus trucks, buses with people & goats sitting on the top & hanging off the sides .... All this & we are not even in India yet. The whole atmosphere had changed to smiles, waves & laughter. Again people live their lives on the streets but in a different way. Every km or so there are fresh water standpipes gushing out where you spot people washing themselves, laundry & cooking utensils whilst chatting away to others. The children are freshly turned out on their way to school & laughing & waving. Because of the time difference we arrived at 8 am as people were starting their day.

Our driver was a delight stopping for photos & finding us a bathroom. The countryside is so different to Tibet. It's warm, humid & green. More mountainous than I expected. There is lots of rice being farmed in terraces up & down the mountains & we have water buffalo alongside the road. Because Nepal is 70% Hindu & 30% Buddhist cars just go around the cows, goats & dogs in the road. I need to make a note about all the stray dogs that run around. They look fed (Buddhism helps here as they fed the less fortunate).

As we near the towns the traffic is chaotic to us, motorbikes everywhere, pedestrians stroll across the road & lots of hooting.... But there is an order & we get through. The countryside is a curious mix of green crops & rice planted very neatly amongst tall skinny buildings which we assume are apartment blocks. Some have for example the first 2 floors completed, the 3rd see through with no walls & the 4th completed.... Almost like the 3rd floor owners could not afford to complete.
Our hotel is great & slap bang on the middle of the tourist area. It was great to have a green crunchy salad & air conditioning as its 30 degrees outside. We whiled away the rest of the afternoon catching up on ourselves.

Great hotel with funky decor & great customer service & some very quirky touches.