Day 1: Selamat Tinggal Malaysia, Sawadee Kap Thailand and Namaste Nepal!

It was 4am when I woke up on the 16th of April. I washed up, did some last minute packing, and ran through the checklist for the very last time. Must've been my 2031082th time! HEHE!

My phone beeped twice, first one from my "bestest best friend" who wished me journey mercy, which really encouraged me. She's one of the very few people who knows about my trip. Maybe some day I'll talk about her here :) The second came from a colleague whose wife just gave birth! Woahhh, and what a timing! Surely it'll be a great day, I knew :D

I drove to Suba's place, and then only realised that I ran out of credits on my phone. I can't call her to let her know that I've arrived! Already a few minutes late, I kinda panicked a little :S I went to the Guard House to ask for a phone. And they said they, too, did not have credits and instead, directed me to a nearby public phone. I'm like, "Err, public phones usually don't work!!!" I drove to the phone anyway, and I really had to pray for the public phone to work, cause I don't know how else to contact her! HAHA, that's my first, and thankfully, it worked! Loaded Suba's luggage into my car and off we went to Louise's.

It was around 5:45am when we arrived. I don't know what time Louise woke up, but I'm REALLY thankful for this friend. It's rare to find such a friend, who's ALWAYS offering to help! Waking up early, driving us to the airport, taking care of my car while I'm gone, and also keeping this little secret. THANK YOU!

We transferred the luggages from my car to hers and usually, car parks are full at this time, but there was one in the FENCED compound at Victoria Heights! WOW! Thank God for that! Had I not able to find a parking lot, I'll have to park outside, and Louise will have to shift my car, and that would really trouble her. Heh, she didn't dare to drive the old junk anyway :P

Reached the airport just a little over 6am and the other car reached just as we were shifting the luggages to the trolleys. The Pastor was already scanning his luggages when we walked to the Check-In counters. *phew* We weren't late!

Some of our luggage bags

My job started there itself in the airport, as I'm the photographer and also the videographer (now that sounds really cool!) of the team. Checking in was easy, and we weren't overloaded despite the extra baggage we carried for the churches over there. There were a few EPCC members who came to send us off too! Thanks people!

The Team (from left) - Suba, Pragas, Pastor Sam, myself, Becky

The flight from Penang to Bangkok on Thai Airways took 1.5hrs. The plane we boarded was an A300, which has a 2-4-2 seating layout. Though our seatings were kinda seperated, it didn't matter cause most of us took a nap and only wake up for the breakfast when they served.

View from the top - Is that N-Park on the right?

Shuttles and the beautiful Bangkok airport

A short flight it was, and when we reached Bangkok, we had to take a shuttle (not a train, unlike KLIA) to get to the terminal building. The Bangkok airport is a new one, opened only last year, and it is all too familiar for me as I was just there 2 months ago during my CNY break. It has this "incomplete", but yet, very stylish and elegant finishing. You can see it in the photos below.

Check out that vehicle! It's like those golf cars, to transport people around the airport. Coooool!

Having to wait for an hour is not that bad, but still we had not much to do. Kinda regretted not bringing a book with me! Bored, I snapped more photos.

The boarding pass and plane ticket

Waiting for the next flight...

The flight from Bangkok to Kathmandu took 3hrs. Ya, kinda long and I was sitting alone, by the window. Good that there was an empty seat on my left, more space is always nice in a plane! I was in awe of the great view. Thank you Lord for your creation! Took photos and videos too!

That's me with the camcorder *shh* I don't think I'm supposed to turn it on!

The most memorable thing in the flight was the FOOD! Yes! I never knew I would LOVE plane food this much! The Chicken Tandoori was just great! Loved it, LOVEDDD IT! They served it with a piece of nan, rice and also some dhal. I thought that would be the kinda dhal I'll be having in Nepal, but I was terribly wrong... you'll see what kinda dhal I had in days to come.

Who would've thought that this will be the one of the best meal for the coming 9 days!?

View from the top - That's Kathmandu. The buildings and road are very different from the ones found in Malaysia

The airport is made of red bricks. Looks old, and very unlike the Penang airport. On the inside, it's very woody and the brownish tiles made it a very "dark" airport. It didn't seem to have enough lights. And I thought that was an "oldie"... wait till I talk about the domestic terminal.

The queue

We had to stand in line to get our Visa which cost USD30. It was a long queue, and the wait lasted 30 minutes or so... tired, I knew the next task would take even more of me.

We moved on to the Baggage Claim section. It was one messy area, with bags on the floor, unattended trolleys here and there, boxes and plastic bags lie as though nobody wants them. And guess what, my bag was one of those on the floor! Good news was that we had all our bags accounted for! *phew*

Before getting to the domestic terminal to take the next flight to Pokhara, we stopped by the Money Changer. The rate was 1USD to 66.5 Nepali Rupee (NPR). That's approx RM1 to 20 NPR. They also charged a 200NPR commission.

The domestic terminal is not on the same building. We had to get out of the building, grab hold of a trolley, and walked to the other building, which is about 10 mins walk. Some of us had to carry our bags because there are people there who "reserved" trolleys, and if you want to use them, you've got to pay them!

The domestic airport is one very rundown building. It looks very much like my primary school hall. The walls are dirty, floor is dirty too, wires everywhere, and I found a bird nest with several birds enjoying their home.

The fan, the wires, the offices and the scale!

Look at the 2nd pic. They use fans instead of airconds. I don't know what are those wires for. Also, the windows are to the office. I don't think they have control towers, and they are probably directing airport traffic from these rooms!

A very rare analog scale

Ya, they use those analog scales, not electronic ones that we always see in the local airports! And to think that this airport is located in Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal! Woah! It is really an eye opener!

After checking in our luggages, we had to go pass a security check. They did not have X-ray machines there so we had to open up our bags for them to check. Without metal detectors, they did a body search instead. It felt really weird being touched by a guy... there's this little "room" with a curtain for this body check. Two lanes seperate the male and the female. In the waiting lounge, there was a shop selling souvenirs and a cyber cafe, which charged RM14 an hour!

How ironic! We took the Buddha Air to Pokhara!

We were taken to the plane by a shuttle, and our checked in luggage were loaded into the same shuttle. The Buddha Air plane is a small propeller one. The plane can only house 2 pilots and a stewardess. With only a size of a mini bus (if you remember one), the 20 odd passengers all sit next to the window, with a very narrow walkway. As we climbed the stairs and entered the aircraft, we could actually see the cockpit, with the two pilots discussing and the control panel all lit up. With many buttons and different sized dials, it's one complicated vehicle!

My first flight in a propeller plane

When all passengers took their seats, the stewardess gave out cotton and sweets. Heh, a joke about the cotton: someone mistakenly took the cotton as cotton candy, and he ate it! Haha, honestly, I wouldn't know what's it for, had my friends not tell me :P It's actually for your ears cause it's noisy when you're up in the air! I had my earphones on, so I took only the sweets.

Sitting at the tail end of the plane

Just before we took off, it was cloudy and windy too! The plane went onto the runway and started blasting off. Very quickly, it was already off the ground, and you could feel the plane shake from the turbulence. There was no rain, YET. With so much clouds in the sky, it was all gloomy in the plane, but you could view Nepal from the window, from buildings to fields to hills and then mountains. Guess what, the stewardess actually served us drinks! Haha, it was such a small plane, I didn't expect anything... definitely no food cause the flight was only 30 mins or so.

Rain started to pour just after we touched down! Thank God it started to rain only after we landed. Without lights on the runway and had it been raining, it's very difficult to land such a small plane, apparently... *phew*

Managed to steal this shot as I was exiting the plane

We had to run into the building because of the rain. It wasn't far, just 100m from the plane, and as I entered, the building blacked out! There was no electricity in the airport! Okay, mind you, it wasn't really an airport. All I saw was a control building, and the building I entered was attached to it. It was probably as big as a typical shop lot? That's where we collected our luggage bags, and that was it. Thats all there is in that "airport"!

By now, it was raining very heavily outside. Oh, it wasn't just rain, it was hailing! Ya know, icy stones falling from the sky! :D Reminds me lots bout Melbourne! We were then greeted by Pastor Palan and his family, and our interpreter, Anil. Man, he was drenched! We took a van to Pastor Palan's home, rested a while, unpacked a little, and then went off for dinner.

By now, the rain had stopped, and it's chilly outside. Supposedly, it's still kinda cold at night, and we were actually told to bring our jackets, but I left all of mine in KL! :( Only had a long sleeve with me, but I didn't bring that during the walk anyway. Such weather makes me miss Australia much. Good that it wasn't windy, else it would be cold.

Well, we chose to walk because the restaurant is 20 mins away. I was then equipped with both my camera and my camcorder. The roads may be tarred but it's still muddy, cause it's very sandy everywhere else. Every now and then, you hear the honks of vehicles, whether it's from the cars, buses, motorbikes, etc... it's VERY common, and it feels weird if you actually don't hear any. It's a norm there to honk, you shall see in photos of the coming days why I'm saying this.

One of the houses we see on the way

One of the many shops, heh, check out the "muscle man"...

Nice building, eh? Cold and wet because of the rain...

Yet another...

The dinner was at this very cool, cozy, dim, and well, I would say romantic place... food served were naan, tandoori chicken, cheese balls, some kinda "popiah", also fried rice and we had our first masala tea. Tastes weird, but that's the tea we order for the following days to come... yes, weird, but tastes really good :D

It's a dim place... but wonderful environment :D

Some of the food we had in the restaurant

Having done with dinner, it was already dark outside. There aren't many street lights, and it's dim and dead all around... and it's only 8pm+! Apparently, the Pastor there sleeps around 9pm every night. I guess that's why it's already so dead by 8pm :S It was cold outside, so we hailed for taxis instead. Those taxies there are as big (or as small) as a Kancil. Doesn't cost much since we're quite near, and we had to past by the Red Light District before getting back to the Pastor's place. Hmm, didn't see anything sinful over there, so praise God :D

It's the first night in Nepal, and I was told that I'm gonna be having a cold shower on a cold night. That was bad news for me, cause hot water is all I use when I bathe, for many many years already! Argh, I didn't complain cause I know I shouldn't... it's a Missions Trip! Accept all that you're given... only in the days to come that I realise I should be thanking God for all that we had on this very first night. Going back to the shower, water was cold, and slow, so imagine the difficulty!

Before we went to bed, we had a short discussion on what's going to happen tomorrow, and how we should prepare for it. Honestly, I felt left out cause I don't seem to have a role when it comes to ministry. I told myself that I'll help in any way possible, cause surely God brought me there not to be a burden to the rest, but a blessing :)

The guys slept in one of the rooms and the girls, in another... our "Teacher" took the bed while Pragas and myself took the floor, with mattress... the pillow was so soft, it felt like as though I'm not sleeping on one. Some of you might've known... I can't sleep on soft pillows, I need a hard one, and what more this pillow, which is so very soft! I had to take out my stuff from my bag, and put under the pillow to sleep... Yes, it was a tough night, but thank God I managed to sleep! In the days to come, you'll know how God helped me in this area... :D

*zzzzzzz*

It's a long post for Day 1, cause there's just so much to tell! Hopefully I'll not be so long winded for the coming posts... Enjoy! :D