Some stress started to build, as we
realized we were days away from the unknown and more primitive life
of Salleri. Our free time will be curtailed as we begin our volunteer
work. Money stress crept in, as
costs for things seem to keep rising,
the Nepalese smile as they want their cut of something and vendors
usually ask for more money than an object is worth, so a simple
purchase is an exercise in bartering. We were informed that out $100
dollar local flight to Salleri is actually $130, and our visas need
to be extended by Jan 8th, which either means fly or walk
back and do it ourselves, or for a generous 3000 rupees ($35) each,
the VSN manager can do it for us. Supposedly the $3000 is only to
bribe the visa officials, but we know everyone involved will take
their cut. We trusted fate and left our passports with VSN in
Kathmandu. We were worried a bit about not having enough money now
for extras in our time in Salleri- the only bank machine in Pepsi
Cola was out of order, but we figured we could change travellers
cheques in the airport, or there was some talk about a bank in
Salleri.
Nov 9th
The Flight
We had been told 3 different times for
when our flight pick up was- 7:15am was the final agreed upon time.
Our host family brought us tea at 7, while we were packing the last
minute items, but then our ride arrived. We took a taxi with Oom-la-
an adult daughter of our Salleri host family. We were swarmed by
porters when we arrived in the parking lot. We didn’t need them,
but somehow 4 men had all our bags on a cart and were careening
towards the entrance. Gelu from VSN met us, as he needed to take our
passports back for the visa extensions in January. Through security
we went, the impromptu porters following us demanding “Tips!”
“Tips!” Because we were at the domestic flight terminal there
were no money changers and an additional 200 Rupee ($2.50) airport
charge each. We got in line, if you could call it a line, a huge
family before us, bags, boxes and packages stacked everywhere. We
waited, eventually an airline staff took our tickets and passports,
then stood around with them for the next hour or so before doing
anything with them. We also stood for the next hour taking in the
chaos. We couldn’t figure out why the line wasn’t moving. Oomla's
English wasn’t very strong, so she couldn’t explain. She seemed
nonplussed, talking on her cel phone and others waiting. It took a
bit of deciphering to realize the family in front of us was going to
a different destination, and it appeared Nepal Air needed to load
that plane before checking us through. Two and a half hours we stood,
a small bag of potato chips to share before we could check in and go
through security. Heath snuck back outside to give Gelu our
passports. The flight was to leave at 9:30, but in traditional
Nepalese time, we didn’t even go through the gates until 10am. We
started to get pretty hungry (our bodies are accustomed to eating a
heavy dahl bhat breakfast at 9am) and hoped the family would greet us
with food after our half an hour flight!
We boarded the 18-seater Twin Otter at
10:20. The flight was incredible. The weather wasn’t super clear,
but the Himalayas poked their majestic heads above the clouds. We
were hoping for a view of Everest, but couldn’t discern it. The
co-pilot might of, as he took a huge camera out of his bag and
pointed out a mountain to us. We were practically riding shotgun-
first aisle behind the cockpit. The beautiful air hostess handed out
candies and cotton balls for our ears at the beginning of the flight,
then spent the rest of it seated at the back checking her hair in a
hand mirror. We flew low enough to follow the valley and ridges- all
of it spotted with terraced farms built on the hillsides over
generations.
The landing
Picture a dirt and rock landing strip
that ends of the edge of a cliff. That was us. Pretty daunting, but
the pilots landed the craft using only half of the runway! After
disembarking, we grabbed our bags from the ground and followed an
older man who had Oomla's bags up the hill. There are no buildings at
this airport! Security stopped us as the top of the stairs- a woman
in uniform wanted our passports. The photocopies were good enough,
she took our names and we continued. The Nepalese man we followed
was to take us to our home- we had no idea how far that would be.
Luckily we had built up our leg muscles trekking, and the route was
downhill! We walked for about 40 minutes, ravenous and needing to use
the toilet- this was the dirt main street, many stares and “Namaste”
along the way. The man raced along at a great clip (he carried his
packages in the typical fashion using the top of his head). Chickens,
goats, small children. The road could be driveable by Landrovers and
dirt bikes, but there was mainly pedestrians.
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