MY GREAT HIMALAYA TRAIL X RANDY SUN
Let’s continue our reports from the series "On the Roof of the World with Andrey Paranich". The topic of this post is how to connect to the internet in Nepal.
As you can probably guess, this is not difficult at all. You need to find a store where sim cards are sold and choose a telecom operator. I chose Ncell - they say it has slightly better coverage in mountainous areas.
To buy a SIM card, you need to provide a passport and fill out a form. They are strict with this: the seller immediately sends a scan of the passport to the telecom operator. The questionnaire is also filled out only in person, and in addition to the signature, it is necessary to put down the thumbs of the right and left hands.
The questionnaire can only be in Nepali, so it is better to look for a seller who speaks English and will help fill it out immediately. Only the questions about the name of father and grandfather seemed unusual, but then I thought that since whole districts here go with the same surname, it can be difficult to identify a person by his name only.
For a SIM card I gave 1.5 dollars and put another 7 dollars on the account. Internet is bought here in pacts: 10GB costs 4.2 dollars and there is a tariff of 1GB per day for a month, costing 7 dollars for 30GB.
Before the trip, I tried to solve the problem with communication with the help of any special offers from Megafon for roaming or with the help of operators of international SIM cards. Megafon's tariffs in Nepal are amazing: satellite communication tariffs are several times lower than roaming tariffs. I also did not find a common language with the operators of international sim cards. I even agreed on a 15% discount, but even with this discount, the tariff is three times more expensive than the local SIM card.
As a result, if you plan to stay in another country for a relatively long time, there is no alternative to buying a local SIM card. Now I have two phones in my pocket: one with a Moscow SIM card and the other with a local one. To log out to WhatsApp from my usual account, I simply connect the phones to each other via wi-fi.
And in the photo - I hand over the biomaterial for the PCR test. According to the rules for entering Nepal, you need to do a PCR test on the 4th and 11th day.
A specially trained person arrives directly at the hotel, puts on a spacesuit, fills out the necessary documents and takes a smear. On the same day, the results will be ready in the evening. This procedure costs 2,500 rupees, that is, approximately 21 dollars. In Moscow, I paid 56 dollars for a test without doctors visiting my home and received the results the next day.