Exploring Kathmandu & Equipment Challenges

I woke up at 8:30am after a restless night’s sleep. I felt very tired. I had breakfast (two fried eggs, two pancakes, two pieces of toast, and a banana). Kiran was not due to meet me until 11am, so I went back to the room and slept again, feeling rather tired!

I met Kiran and we went to the camera shop in New Road to pick up a wide-angle lens. I wish I had bought it in the UK because we went to about 8 camera shops and only one had it. It was expensive, and a hassle. We did not buy it, because another camera shop in Thamel said they could get me the lens so we walked 3km back to Thamel to the first camera shop, but they could not get the lens. So back again to New Road, 3km away again. The shops here mostly accept cash, they don’t like card, even for large purchases. The camera shop would not accept my card, and said I needed to get cash.

One point of noting is that the maximum you can get out of an ATM is 20,000 rupees (equivalent of £100). You pay a fee of £2.50 (500 rupees). You can get multiple amounts out but you need to insert the card repeatedly and you are charged £2.50 for each transaction. The camera lens was a few hundred dollars and I was so pleased Kiran was there. I transferred the funds to him using Wise (which is awesome, and essential to get an account as they don’t have PayPal in Nepal). Kiran then transferred the funds to the camera shop by bank transfer.

I had been tracking my iTag and saw my bag was now in Mumbai, and I updated the lady whose bag was with mine. We had another call to Indigo and the airport to liaise to get it to KTM. Unfortunately, they did not put our bags on the KTM flight and I was exasperated to see the iTag still showing Mumbai after the KTM flight had landed.

We grabbed some food, got a few more bits of equipment, and then headed back to the hotel where we said goodbye. Kiran had been great, and so I gave him $200 on top of the $300 I had paid him prior to the trip on Upwork. He seemed genuinely very happy, and I felt it was worth it as he had helped me for 2 days solid.

In the evening, I went to a restaurant and ordered a 1000kg steak, but only managed around 750g. Got to bed around midnight.