I know for some of you, my journey to Nepal has been a long time coming. Thanx to you all, I am now safely in Kathmandu. Of course I wouldn’t be here without the encouragement and support of each and every one of my amazing friends, especially my wonderful son.
I also know that my long suffering Poddies, Jane, Mr Mc and Auntie Al , as well as the GPs are probably stunned at the increase in work productivity since my departure. And Sharron, Pierre and Waltergator, I am delighted to take full credit for that due to my constantly distracting them before I left........however, I draw the line at taking any responsibility for the situation in the ‘noisy’ pod and wouldn’t want to mention any names but I’m assuming Adrian and Mick are still bossing, oops, I mean looking after, Pauline and M2 (I’m aware Lynne ‘escaped’ a few weeks ago). And to all of you, my special friends and colleagues at the Secretariat , I hope you are enjoying the peace and quiet. I want to thank you all so much for the perfect farewell gifts – I am actually using the head torch now, as the power is out (and yes Adrian I do look like a goose and Midgie if you ever show those photos that are proof of that to anybody, I’ll have to shred you). At least I can see and I still fancy the idea of becoming a doctor...............yeah, I hear you, more likely a miner!!!!! And the supersonic hand torch is fantastic for lighting up the alleyways when I’m stumbling my way home from the pub (as if!!!!!!!!!!). Seriously though, so thoughtful and appreciated, as was the happy hour farewell celebration (I hope there are still a few coins in the Nutella jar Waltergator) – and what a special touch Mr Mc and Elizabeth organising to play ‘I’m going to Kathmandu’.
The last couple of weeks preparing for departure went fairly much according to plan after the hiccup with the minor wrist operation. I can’t remember whether the surgeon was wearing a head torch or not but my wrist has fully recovered - thank you for all your good wishes (I hope your recovery is as swift Lesley). I’m not sure I would have been as organised without Jordan helping me ‘stay on track’ - no easy task with all the fabulous coffee dates, lunches, dinners and parties. For all of you who organised and participated in those celebrations – the fanciest restaurant in town (you know where that is Alex), GOW luncheons, Lorraine and Judith coffee meeting, my Gym Gal Gang dinner as well as an awesome outdoor coffee session at HI with Annie, Jo, Kathy, Janene, Fran, Sandy and Debra, many happy hours with Dawnie, Glor, Andy , Bruce and Dianne as well as afternoon tea with my boot-scooters – long phone calls with Susie Q, Stuart, Gwen and WW, what fabulous times...... I will treasure the memories always. The risk of naming names is that there is always the possibility of leaving somebody out and offending...............if I have done that, can we blame it on the Kathmandu pollution and I will ‘catch you up’.
After an emotional farewell with Jordan and Bruce at Canberra airport, I flew to Melbourne to spend a couple of days with friends – thank you Sir Geoffrey, my Sergeant’s stripes are now safely sewn on to my Australian T-Shirt – can you send me a cap so people in the ‘hood can start taking me seriously. Midgie and I flew on to Launceston to have a few days with ‘Arraine. We were reprimanded by the hostie for chatting during the safety demonstration – I apologised to her, explaining that we had a very critical conference to attend in Launceston and were running out of time for preparing our strategic plan (just kidding!!!). What a fabulous time we enjoyed – except for the Easter egg treasure hunt. Even though I have fully recovered from this particular event, I do have to ‘get this off my chest’. Julie and Ali, two of ‘Arraine’s Tassie friends came along to join in the fun. Now ‘Arraine and I have been friends for a bazillion years (well at least 20) and she is one of the most honest people I know. But I think she gave the others maps or clues because I was the only one who didn’t find a single egg or chicken and had to resort to stealing from the others. I can hear you saying ‘build a bridge’ Midgie – that’s only because you found (with the help of your map) enough chocolate chickens to hold a chook conference .................geez did I say I had recovered??? – maybe I have a little more work to do on that ‘I didn’t find one egg or chicken’ issue!!!!!!!!!!!!
Midgie, ‘Arraine and I flew back to Melbourne on Saturday – and I didn’t mention the Easter egg hunt once – and we had a fond farewell night at the Holiday Inn near the airport – almost added to the list of places ‘please don’t come back’ . Many, many laughs, much bullshipping, reminiscing and of course a few (well maybe more than a few) tears. Nevertheless, some of the tension was relieved when Midgie was repacking her bags and discovered some Easter eggs covered in knitted chicken cosies (don’t worry, I’ll send a picture) – I’m actually saving mine for next year’s Easter egg hunt – OK, I’ll book for therapy!!! Dhana (or Mr Don’t Worry as some of us know him) one of my best friends from Bangladesh is currently studying at Latrobe University in Melbourne. He met up with us on Sunday and we all spent a fabulous day in PJ O’Reilly’s. Jackie (Midgie’s glorious daughter) also joined us at the airport to wait for my 0300 flight.
We decided to get my bags booked in as soon as the check-in opened. I had been ‘negotiating’ with Thai Airways for weeks before my departure to waive the excess fee for an extra 20 kilos of luggage – as most of you know, I will not travel anywhere without my tool kit – well there was an agreement to waive some of it right up until I put the extra bag on the belt. The details of what followed are another blog so here are the main points – that will cost you $950 madam – are you kidding? – well you can put another three kilos from this bag into your first bag and we will waive that fee – how kind of you. Thank goodness for Jackie – she very calmly helped me wheel the bags away and repack before we decided that she and Midgie would take the second bag home with them and have it freighted to Nepal for me. At least the generous (not) Thai Manager let me jump the queue to re-check in my ‘three kilo fee waivered’ bag. After that little fiasco we decided we should take coffee (in Nepal, as in Bangladesh you take, not have, coffee). While we were waiting for our coffee, a woman walked past and spilt her whole cup of coffee over my bag – she promptly turned around and went back to the counter to demand another cup of coffee. I even more promptly walked over to her, tapped her on the shoulder and asked her if she could care less that she had just spilt her coffee all over my luggage – and the reality was that, no she didn’t. Midgie and Jackie came to the rescue – not because of the risk of me harming the stupid women – but to take the bag home with them and clean it and now they are kindly re-arranging the contents of the bag and in due course they will send them.
The flight from Melbourne to Bangkok was comfie and apart from watching Sandra Bullock’s Academy winning performance, I managed to sleep most of the journey. The six hour wait in Bangkok passed very quickly after two hours of massage (what a great tip that was Tuula), a couple of half decent coffees and a little duty free shopping. The security people at Bangkok airport have all had plastic surgery to remove the smiles from their faces but check-in was relatively easy because my baggage was already booked directly through from Melbourne to Kathmandu. However, when I got on the plane there was a woman sitting in my seat and she refused to get out. Now, I know this woman had no idea I hadn’t found any eggs in the Easter egg hunt and that the Manager at Thai Airways in Melbourne had wanted to charge me $950 for excess luggage, and that some idiotic woman had spilt a cup of coffee all over my luggage, and that I was leaving my fabulous son and friends for a very long time and my iPod battery was running low, but I swear the only reason I didn’t physically eject her from the seat myself was that she was about 90 years of age. Her son explained that she wanted to sit next to the window. I told him not to worry; I would be happy sitting in the aisle seat and miss seeing the Himalayas from the air as we flew into Nepal –ARGHH!!!! I consoled myself with the wonderful book Ali gave me – awesome, thank you Ali. There was one minor ‘moment’ - as you would know the special dietary meals are delivered to seat numbers rather than actual people and when my meal arrived at the same time as ‘the son’s’, I was so tempted to have a few mouthfuls of the delicious looking dhal but realised I’ll be eating that every day for the next two years. The dear old lady was so pleased when I handed it over I thought she was going to give me back my seat. My meal was delicious anyway and the flight was only about three and a half hours.
Arriving in Kathmandu was a bit of a non-event – although I’m sure the dear old lady in my seat enjoyed the view. Slipping through customs and immigration was no fuss – apart from greeting the officers with Namaste, I decided to stick to English rather than use the four other words of Nepali I knew to try and avoid the hug faux pas I made in Dhakka that most of you are familiar with. After the hour long wait for my bag to arrive on the carousal, Jeeven, from VSO Nepal, met me in the airport grounds where I was already choking on the polluted air. We waited for the other volunteers, five from the Philippines (who had actually been on the same flight as me from Bangkok) - and John, from Uganda and Caroline, from Kenya to arrive. After introductions, packing ourselves and luggage into two mini-vans we were ‘on our way to Kathmandu’.
During this drive I realised time does not provide a buffer for the shock of seeing poverty in all its rawness. Kathmandu is similar in many ways, only on a smaller scale, to Dhakka, the shanties, the poorest of the poor, the crazy traffic (minus the thousands of rickshaws – which means I may have less chance of being run over by one on this trip), the desolation and the dust. The population density is much less, however, I think the pollution in Kathmandu is worse than Dhaka – it’s a huge challenge to walk around and enjoy the treasures that are on offer here. Nevertheless, it is happening, so stay tuned. The people are wonderful and the children in the neighbourhood where we are staying in a guest house (upper level backpacker style) have already claimed the Aussie who can kick the soccer ball fairly impressively, as their bondhu (friend).
I realise this ‘chapter’ does not report very much about actually being in Nepal – I just wanted to share how grateful I am for your support, encouragement and patience in getting me here. I look forward to more yakking from Nepal.
Stay well and khub kushi my wonderful friends
Namaste and hugs from Kathmandu
Marguerite
