Nepal - hiking adventure

[Dantas]

We arrived at the Durbar Hotel in Kathmandu at around 8.30pm - a long day! It was twin share rooms again (it works well with these types of tours) and we were on the fourth floor, via stairs only. I'd put this hotel in the two star category and it was fine for one night.

After checkin we grabbed a late snack of momos and had a refreshing ale at Reggaes Bar, which is rooftop.

Tuesday - breakfast at Durbar was a very lightly stocked buffet but they cooked eggs to order so I had a masala omelette and black coffee. We then set off on foot to Durbar Square, dodging traffic, locals, dogs, motorbikes and the like. It's easy enough to get around with Google Maps, as with any city like this, you just have to take care and stay alert. There's an entry fee of Rs1000 at the square which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site which has multiple temples, a palace that was used by the former royal family and a museum. Market vendors are also scattered around the square but they weren't pushy and prices for souvenirs etc were reasonable.

After a quick coffee my travel mate and I broke away from the rest of the group who went to the Monkey Temple. We had a much needed shave and haircut at New Barber Junction for the bargain price of Rs400 ($AU4.40).

We then found lunch at Local Restro and Bar. We shared a momo selection (steamed and fried) and I had chicken biryani. Great food here and good views from the rooftop section. We then wandered around with no real plans apart from shopping and then caught up with the rest of the group at Mitho Restaurant for an early dinner.

We farewelled our local guide Naran and caught taxis to the airport. It's really the only means of getting there. I’ll let the photo of the airport drop off area explain the chaos that we had to deal with but once we were in the terminal the chaos became slightly organised. Checkin for CX was quick and straight forward but I used the J/priority queue. We then were told to watch our checkin luggage go through the scanner and if it wasn’t pulled aside then we were good to go. After passing through immigration which was also quick, I went to the Horizon Lounge which is used by CX. Strangely, it is before security! It doesn't have showers and toilets are external to the lounge which was a little frustrating as I needed the use of the facilities as soon as I arrived. There's a small but reasonable buffet and a decent selection of drinks including beer, wine and spirits. It became quite crowded after an hour or so and would have been close to capacity. Overall it was just a quieter space to wait rather than in the main section of the terminal but not a particularly great experience.

There were some boarding announcements but not CX640 to HKG! I passed through security with a few minutes to spare before boarding commenced. Again, a short bus ride from the terminal to the aircraft, my first of four Airbus' to get home. CX640 left on time at 2255 and I was in 11A in J. The seat next to me was vacant.

I ordered chicken biryani and a glass of French white wine (I can't recall any further details) but I nodded off during service but they came back to me when I woke up. It's just a four hour flight and I slept for most of it given the time of night. The arrival into HKG was on time at 0525.

 

[Scarlett]

Some great and fairly unique images in this trip report @Dantas.
Noicely done.

 

[Dantas]

Thankyou, it hasn’t been difficult though! So many great landscapes and opportunities.

 

[Dantas]

I booked day-use room at Novotel Citygate which is about a 10-minute shuttle bus ride from HKG airport. I arrived shortly after 6.00am and wasn’t surprised when they told me my room wasn’t ready as it was reserved for 7.00am. Clearly they weren’t familiar with the day-use concept as they also told me that check in is at 2.00pm. After further discussion they told me to check back at 10.00am. By about 9.00am the dedicated ALL Accor desk opened so I tried my luck and had a room key within minutes! I just had a standard room but it was fairly spacious with a huge bathroom.

The plan was to catchup on sleep given the short flight the night before and time change, but I decided against it. Citygate Outlets is an outlet mall that inter-connects with the Novotel so I spent a few hours shopping. I then caught the train into the city for further shopping and lunch.

It was then back to the airport for QF128 HKG-SYD which was delayed by 40 mins. Check-in was straightforward and I was issued with a ‘Courtesy Channel’ (handwritten) voucher for priority security and immigration clearance. The queues were short though so it was of no benefit.

I went to the Pier Lounge again and was surprised to see the menu had changed since my last visit only a week or so earlier. I can recommend the clam chowder, pan seared Atlantic salmon and mushroom ravioli but didn’t care for the Dan dan noodles. The soup/liquid was too thick which made the noodles too hard to separate. There was no boarding announcement (as I was on QF I suppose) and it was a 10-12 min walk to the gate. Further delays at the gate and we boarded about an hour late. The A330 was 21 years old (I’ve been on this one twice previously) and I was in 4K. The interior is showing ware with its fair share of chips and scratches. The IFE screen was blacked-out and eventually changed to ‘please wait’ and we were told it will fire up when the second engine is running. Which it did.

The service was pretty slow; it was about two hours into the flight before mains were served. I had potato and carrot soup followed by beer roasted chicken and lemon panna cotta to follow. I also souvenired another of the new amenity kit bags – makes a change to the plain boring ones they have had recently. I slept right though until breakfast was served. Arrival into SYD was fast and easy. I wasn’t aware of the (temporary?) changes to the QF transfer bus and was ushered outside (not through security) to opposite Rydges and onto a Skybus to T3. I’ve since read comments in the QF forum on here – worth a read. It takes longer as the bus exits the airport precinct and joins normal traffic via Airport Drive and then approaches the terminal in the public drop-off area, which at times I would imagine would be rather busy. Then I had to go through T3 security. So anyone transferring with a tight connection might be in trouble.

I freshened up with a shower in the J lounge before having a scrambled egg panini and a decent coffee.

I’m currently on QF443 SYD-MEL on VH-OGA; the first QF A321XLR. And this is my first experience on it. This is the 1230 service and I then connect to HBA. But why fly direct…. Well three reasons: to try out the new aircraft, more SCs and points and I’m also on a DSC itinerary. And perhaps a fourth one: the next service to HBA was a later 1410 departure so I won’t lose too much time. I’ll take this TR to the finish and will have one last post.