Taking the plane from Toronto to Washington was simple and short. Then taking the Qatar Airways to Doha, Qator was wonderful. Yes, we can say this for a 12-hour flight. We boarded at 10:30 p.m. When we got ourselves comfortable, we were served an amazing meal, with wine and cognac.
Our own private movie screens allowed Gerald to watch: Crazy Heart, Blind Side, while MaryIris watched Up in Air and Blind Side. Then we settled in for the night. The plane, it seems, was half empty. This allowed us to pick a three-person seat and lay down for the night and have a comfortable sleep. This was wonderful.
Just before getting into Doha, Quatar, we had a wonderful breakfast -- we felt very spoiled. We arrived in Doha around 5:00 p.m., five hours ahead of our time. When we got into Doha, we decided to go into the town and see what it was like. So, we took a cab to City Centre. Apparently, the shore line has changed significantly in the last four years due to the oil and gas boom in the country.
The beautiful buildings/architecture we saw was in fact an entire area of new building that have been built in the last four years. We walked along the newly-built boardwalk of stone around the bay. It was very clean. The cars in Doha all seemed brand new and very clean.
We rushed back to the airport to catch our plane leaving at 1:00 a.m. for Kathmandu. Unfortunately, there was a four-hour delay due to weather in Nepal, i.e., low visibility. We finally boarded our plane at 4:00 a.m., very tired, but happy to have only a four-hour flight ahead of us and our destination.
As we approached Kathmandu, the pilot notified us that we could not land because of the visibility conditions. The pilot decided that we would wait in a 'holding pattern' as long as our fuel would allow us to, to see if we could land in a half hour. Unfortunately, we could not. so we had to fly to India, land there, and refuel. This took us an hour and half. At this point, the pilot received notification that the weather had improved and we could fly to Kathmandu. What a relief.
The hotel we are staying at sent a driver to pick us up at the airport.
We are staying at the International Guest House in the Thamel area of Kathmandu which is very popular with tourists. The Hotel is a beautiful building.
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