Journey Abroad

Chapter 3: First Impressions

After the vis check and the luggage claim, which luckily went without any difficulties, Maya and Emily took a van to their first sleeping arrangement. They wouldn't meet their host family in the first two weeks. They would first visit Kathmandu and Pokhara to get to know the country, culture, nature and do some sightseeing. They had a lot planned in those two weeks.

Their teacher and helpline, Leah, from Belgium had told them what they had to do and see. Leah had helped all the previous students who had come to Nepal, so she was an expert. She also tried to come to Nepal every year but this year it didn't work with her busy schedule.

Anyway, Leah, had told them what they had to do and see in Kathmandu this week. Today, however, they hadn't planned anything. It was only 10 o'clock in the morning but they knew that it was going to be an overwhelming day even though their schedule was empty.

On the way to their first sleeping arrangement, they already experienced the first big difference. The traffic. To say that it was chaotic and busy is an understatement. Maya looked out of the van window and she searched for some structure or anything to understand how there weren't any accidents. She saw motorcycles rush between the cars, brave cyclers who were carrying big loads of cartons or sacs on their cycle with just a little rope, people crossing the streets, cars, tourist vans, ... It also didn't help Maya that the rules were completely different. She hadn't seen any traffic lights yet and most of all, everyone was driving on the left side of the road.

Maya had heard about this in Belgium and she had thought it would make her anxious and stressed. However, she felt hypnotized by the chaos and it somehow gave her a nostalgic feeling to her childhood memories in India and Sri Lanka.

Maya could however sense that Emily did feel anxious by the traffic. She was recording it with her phone and there was a silent tension in the car. Maya wasn't sure if it was the jetlag that kept them quiet or all these first expressions of Kathmandu.

Once they had checked in to their little room, they both lay down on their extremely hard beds. 'That would be getting used to', Maya thought. Nevertheless, she knew she would sleep deep tonight because it was going to be a long and exhausting day with a lot of newness. So, she would no doubt be completely exhausted when she would go to bed tonight. Emily and Maya had agreed they wouldn't go to bed before 22 o'clock local time so their jetlag wouldn't play to much with their sleep schedule in the coming days. So they left to grab a bite and install a Nepali Sim Card so they could let their families know that they safely arrived in Kathmandu.