I rode the sleek and speedy Airport Express back out to Hong Kong airport, where my OneWorld business class award ticket got me into the Cathay Pacific lounge, right by the departure gate for the Dragonair flight to Kathmandu. Since I’d spent the morning sightseeing I was glad of the opportunity to shower. I had completely forgotten that I needed a visa for Nepal until the check-in agent asked if I was getting my visa on arrival. So after I got cleaned up I dug out the visa application form, the photos and the $20 bills stashed in my back-up money belt.
The flight is a little strange – it stops in Dakka but if you’re going on to Kathmandu you have to stay on the plane, and you can’t board the flight in Dakka to go to Kathmandu, only via Kathmandu (where you have to stay on the plane) back to Hong Kong. Dakka was a more popular destination then I had expected – almost the entire complement of business class passengers got off there. My seat mate, an interesting and well-traveled young man of Indian origin, said that he spent weekdays working in Dakka, and his weekends with his family back in Hong Kong.
If business class on Dragonair wasn’t quite up to Cathay Pacific standards, it was plenty comfortable, given I wouldn’t be sleeping (I don’t think the seats went all the way flat). The food was good, as were the Shiraz and port. In short, I had a quiet, clean, comfortable, even pampered, afternoon and evening. Then I got off the plane at Kathmandu airport.
At 10:00 pm the arrivals building was mostly deserted. It was also dusty, decrepit and disorganized. Although I had already completed my visa application form I still needed to fill in an arrivals card, and then maintain my place in line to buy the visa and get stamped in. I didn’t see an ATM, but I did change a few Hong Kong dollars at the one bureau de change, and was relieved to see a man holding a sign with my name among the hotel and taxi touts waiting to pounce.
The taxi, however, was not an improvement on the airport. In fact, I had doubts that we would make it all the way to the hotel, as in addition to the usual rattles it had a squeal like a soul in torment. Of course, given the state of the roads, it would be surprising if a car with any age on it didn’t develop rattles and squeals. I had arrived on the last day of Diwali, the festival of lights, and after some dark and deserted streets we started passing buildings with long strings of lights hung from the roofs – in fact those lights had been about all that lit the darkness below coming in on the plane. It was clear that I was back in south Asia – I hadn’t been to Nepal before, but I had spent ten weeks in India in 2001.
Despite my doubts, the taxi duly made it to the Courtyard Hotel, in north Thamel (backpacker central). I had chosen the hotel almost entirely because of a report I read online. So, as the gate to the enclosed courtyard (yes, the Courtyard has a courtyard) swung open, I was intrigued to see how much of dogster’s description was embroidery.
Inside the gate, across a little, hump-backed bridge, rose three red brick wings: breakfast to the left, bar and library to the right, and reception in the center, with benches outside, where Michelle, who runs the hotel with her husband Pujan, was chatting with some guests. Those benches, and the library, and Michelle herself are the heart of the hotel. This is a travelers’ hangout for travelers who’d like a little comfort with their conversation. Actually, in the renovated rooms, rather a lot of comfort, although those rooms may be pushing the affordability envelope for some travelers.
Next to actually traveling, travelers like nothing better than to talk about
it. Enthuse about their finds, bemoan their more hair-raising adventures (have to have some of those), even listen to a few stories from other people, and perhaps connect for a meal or a ride. Hostels, guesthouses, some B&Bs and pensions and low end hotels are all places travelers find each other. But like my guesthouse in Gyeongju, they tend to be on the spartan side. Upgrade, assuming you can afford it, and your fellow guests will maintain a polite reserve, and probably aren’t travelers in the first place.
The Courtyard is filling the gap in the middle, and filling it well. There’s a generator, so Nepal’s daily power cuts weren’t a problem for me. The showers were admirable. Laundry gets sent to the Radisson so it stays white – just one of those little details involved in running a hotel in Kathmandu. My renovated room was charming – half-tester bed, easy chair, big mirror in a gold frame, desk and chair, whose green and gold upholstery was matched by the rest of the room. The unrenovated room I slept in one night worked fine, too.
You have an interesting travel blog here. Thanks for information about Kathmandu. I love to got there oneday.