We've Arrived!

Wednesday August 6th
We arrived safely on Monday afternoon after a very straightforward albeit long journey. We travelled to Abu Dhabi and had a 3 hr wait in the transit area before changing planes for Delhi. We were not looking forward to experiencing Delhi airport as so many people had warned us of its chaotic lack of organisation. Much to our amazement, however we collected our bags easily and found our way through customs having changed some money for our over night stay and for our homeward trip via Delhi too. Before our departure we tried to pre book a hotel room and airport pick up with a recommended hotel but as they did not acknowledge our request we made other arrangements for our stay. Imagine our embarrassment when we left the airport to find two taxi drivers waiting each bearing a board with our name on! We crept past one and went to the one from the hotel we had prepaid for and made our getaway. The hotel was in a very busy part of Delhi but our room was air conditioned and the restaurant served us a good meal before we slept soundly. We left early for our midday flight remembering what we had been told about queues and found on our arrival that our flight was an hour later than we thought and there were very few people at the airport. We had 5 hours to spare. It was great as we could relax and check in easily. We then had to change our money back into pounds as we were told that the Indian Government won’t allow large notes to go into Nepal. They wouldn’t change it into Nepali currency as seemed sensible as they told us “Nepali rupees do not exist.” There is obviously a problem between these two bordering countries. Our flight to Nepal was only an hour and a half and left on time. We couldn’t see the Himalayas as we came in, which was disappointing as it is the monsoon season here and very cloudy at the moment. Visas took a while to sort out as they couldn’t understand why we had come for six months but it was eventually sorted out and we were let into Nepal. Outside a gentleman came up to us and said Jackson?” I said “yes!” and Colin said “No!” Colin thought he said “Taxi,” so that caused hilarity and broke down any barriers immediately.
After a hectic drive through Kathmandu we were delivered to the door of our hostel, a large house in its own compound with very attractive gardens. We were shown to our bedroom which has ensuite facilities and a work area immediately outside with two desks (seems we are expected to work whilst here!) Tuesday was spent being shown the local shopping facilities which are very good, most things being available, and then meeting so many people from our school that we immediately forgot everyone.
Today we went to the school to begin our two week induction by being taken to see the sights of Kathmandu on various forms of transport. The bicycle rickshaw was great fun but somewhat alarming at times as the traffic was incredibly busy and there do not seem to be any road rules apart from go whenever and wherever you can!
We start our language training tomorrow and have meetings to attend so we will let you know more about what we will be doing in our next newsletter. So far so good!!
Colin and Ellen
PS Skype works and we have broadband - fantastic