Its my Birthday!!
“You dont exchange currency? Seems a bit odd, OK, we’ll go and change elsewhere and come back in a few mins”
off we go to the money exchange places
“Hi - i’d like to exchange Nepalese rupees for USD”
“I'm sorry thats illegal if you are not Nepali”
“what?!?”
“Yup it’s illegal”
After securing the trek departure from Pokhara for the 9th Jan, we headed out for lunch by Phewa lake at a place called Mikes - great view, great weather, great food and very relaxing….
Woke up
on the 7th of Jan after the crazy journey and entertaining arrival in
Nepal to a glorious sunny day and from the balcony of our Hotel we could
see the snowy peaks of Annapurna south and Macchapucchre (Also known as
Fishtail) I have not really seen mountain quite like these and it was
pretty exciting to think that we would be up walking in them in a couple
of days. A great start to the birthday and a hearty breakfast courtesy
of Shekar and family set me up for the day.
A bit misty and not the best shot but in the background are Annapurna South (Left) and Fishtail (Right) covered in snow. Better photos to follow, promise!
Not
a lot planned for today, just exploring Pokhara and we needed to sort
out paying our guide for the trek.
He needed an advance to arrange trekking permits and to ensure that we were for real before he made the long trip from Kathmandu to meet us near Pokhara.
He needed an advance to arrange trekking permits and to ensure that we were for real before he made the long trip from Kathmandu to meet us near Pokhara.
We
had decided on High Camp Trekking as a company after a lot of web research and had contacted them
before we left India, I won’t go into the details as its a bit boring
but suffice it to say, we were struggling to pay the deposit to confirm
our booking, this was due to difficulties completing an international
banking transfer when Indian banks were closed and whilst we were traveling and had sporadic internet access when on the move in India
and when we got down to it, it was going to cost us about 20 quid when
we could just walk into the bank branch and pay in person and the cash
would arrive at the same time. Long story short, we were planning to
walk into the branch of ‘Everest bank’ and pay our deposit in cash in
Pokhara - easy...you’d think
So we needed to pay in USD, we dont have any (we’re drowning in Nepalese rupees though) so we walked into the bank to pay with a large wad of rupee notes.
So we needed to pay in USD, we dont have any (we’re drowning in Nepalese rupees though) so we walked into the bank to pay with a large wad of rupee notes.
“I’d like to pay this cash into this account please”
“Oh, sorry this is a USD account”
“OK, then can we change these rupees into dollars to pay into your account”
“No, sorry we dont do that - you need USD cash to deposit”
“You dont exchange currency? Seems a bit odd, OK, we’ll go and change elsewhere and come back in a few mins”
off we go to the money exchange places
“Hi - i’d like to exchange Nepalese rupees for USD”
“I'm sorry thats illegal if you are not Nepali”
“what?!?”
“Yup it’s illegal”
[It appears that there is a concern that foreigners are converting NPR to USD and taking the USD away with them].
“Oh….kay,
how about our USD travellers cheques, we have some - can you change
them, no exchange involved then we have USD and can pay - hurrah”
“Err...A couple of months ago the Nepali central goverment banned the use of travellers cheques so we cant do that either”
“So
assuming I need to pay someone USD in cash, this person is Nepali you
understand so the money is staying here and the government insists at
least one of his business accounts is in USD, how do I pay him”
“well
I am sure some of the money changers could do this, but it is illegal
so it may be difficult to find them and be quite expensive”
Argh!!! The bank closes in 2 hours and I need to get this cash to the trekking company today!
After
a very helpful person in Standard Charter let us use their phone, we
contacted the guide company and sorted out a way to pay but this was
after a couple of hours of chasing our tails going from bank to exchange
company to another bank and back to another bank again.
Finally
we deposited our advance and our guide was happy - just in the nick of
time as he needed to purchase our permits the next day.
Lessons Learned:
- USD cash in Nepal is good to have
- Obtaining USD is currently not legal if you are a foreigner
- Travellers cheques are simply not accepted here right now
- Obtaining USD is currently not legal if you are a foreigner
- Travellers cheques are simply not accepted here right now
After securing the trek departure from Pokhara for the 9th Jan, we headed out for lunch by Phewa lake at a place called Mikes - great view, great weather, great food and very relaxing….
Birthday Burritto on Phewa lake...my first non-veg dish in a while...hmmm.
We
headed back to the hotel that evening and collected the washing that
Shekar had done for us, Ana was quite insistent that I should take it
upstairs and suggested that I bring down the last of the Indian whiskey
to share with the crowd in reception, seemed like a good idea so a
sprinted up and came down with the bottle to crowd gathered around my
surprise birthday cake. I poured the whiskey there was a tuneful
international rendition of happy birthday and much rejoycing, we all
tucked into the massive cake, Shekar and family and the guests and
friends and still barely made a dent, after thirds we headed out to get
some dinner at a local eatery ‘Tea Time’ had a beer and generally
stuffed myself - happy birthday to me, thanks for the surprise Ana :)
I think the inferno at the side of the cake represents the 32 candles - no way I can blow that out....
That was a big cake! This was what was left after thirds and the extended family had all had a couple of pieces!
No comments:
Post a Comment