How It All Began...

Today’s post will be a bit more like a traveling journal for those of you that have been messaging and curious as per my travels so far!

So my journey started off at none other than YYZ, i.e. Pearson Airport. I was lucky enough to have more than 20 amazing friends and family bid me farewell, which was probably one of the nicest ways I could have been seen off.

The 15h20min plane ride to Hong Kong was evidently a long and brutal one. I must say though, Cathay Pacific really knows how to spoil a woman. The couple to whom I was seated besides are a whole different story; the wife spent most of the flight sleeping on the floor and somewhat under my legs while her husband made it a point to walk over me and on my seat any time he needed to move.

Hong Kong 

We landed in the big HK (funny cause its not big at all) at about 530am and our flight to Bangladesh wasn’t until 620pm that evening, so we decided to make the best of those 12 hours and go exploring (extra stamp in my passport… booyah!).

Our tour guide was this cute old man named Willie (not a name you hear too often haha), and the tour we did was designed especially for people in transit. We went to an observation deck, rode a ferry, and saw Bruce Lee’s statue, among other things. We also had some dim sum, which was deeeeeelicious. The day was overall well spent but I didn’t feel like we saw any of the really authentic HK sights; HK is one of the most highly densely populated places in the world and everywhere we visited was fairly empty. Neverthless, we made the best of our situation and I really enjoyed it. Hopefully, during our return flight/travels to Toronto in April, I’ll get to check out a local HK market… now that would be living the dream.

Arrival in Nepal

When we arrived to the airport, getting our bags wasn't a problem, but finding our ride definitely was. It was pitch black outside and pouring rain with people running in all directions, so finding the driver took forever. Once we did though, things were a lot better. He greeted us well and gave each of us a scarf to welcome us to Nepal.

After our 36+ hours of travelling, all I wanted to do was shower once we got to the hotel. As always, I do things in style and I somehow managed to break the showerhead within my first 5 minutes of arrival to the hotel. For those of you that think I’m exaggerating, think again… I literally broke off the entire showerhead causing water to spray across the entire bathroom. Every surface was completely soaked and my shower was not at all what I was expecting haha!

Tomorrow there’s a strike, referred to as bandhs, happening and no one is allowed to drive, unless they have a blue-plated vehicle (allocated mostly to Diplomats). It’s a strike organized by all student unions across the country concerning the recent fuel price hikes implemented by the government. We’ve haven’t decided yet the extent to which this will impede on our Orientation, but it’s looking a lot like the day’s events will be cancelled or postponed. I’m curious to see what the effects of the strike will look like, but I know better than to go wandering (see Mom.. I know how to be safe!).

There are two girls here with Uniterra from the UofOttawa, so that’s awesome as well! The more, the merrier, right? They’re short-term volunteers, meaning they’re here for 3 months instead of the whooping 8 we’ve signed up for.

CECI Nepal + Uniterra
CECI and Uniterra are the organizations through which we are completing this field placement, so the orientation has been organized by them. Things are overall pretty organized with orientation and I’m quite pleased. Everyone is so friendly and we’ve already learned a lot. Today’s orientation was helpful and we got to meet all the who’s-who’s of CECI. They also organized a welcome lunch where we met all CECI staff as well as several of the other volunteers working with the organization. The food was delicious and I don’t feel sick yet, so that’s a great sign!

We also made a visit to the Nepal International Clinic, where we had an info session with a doctor about safe health practices. Apparently Fatima and I missed the memo about needing Japanese Encephalitis (or syphilis according to Madiha), so we’ll be getting that shot this week. We also found out that Rabies is a super important vaccine to have in Kathmandu (you won’t believe the number of stray dogs); luckily, the vaccinations are unbelievably cheaper here in Nepal than at home… instead of $700 for the Rabies shot, it costs US$35 here.


Alright... that's more than enough for you to read about! Hope that wasn't too much!