Remote from Kathmandu: UTC+5:45, no PayPal, and a bank that wants three letters

नमस्ते everyone. I've been a full stack dev for an Australian agency for two years, fully remote from Kathmandu. People keep asking me how it works, so here is the honest version haha.

The timezone that confuses everyone

Nepal is UTC+5:45. Yes, 45. Every new client thinks it's a typo. Sydney is UTC+10 right now, so we're 4 hours 15 minutes apart. I start at 6:45 am, which is 11 am for them, and finish around 3 pm. In their summer it gets an hour worse because they move their clocks and we don't.

Tip: in calendar invites, always write both times. "Standup 10:30 Sydney / 6:15 Kathmandu". After a few weeks they stop asking.

Getting paid

PayPal doesn't work for receiving money in Nepal. My first year, the client paid through a friend's cousin in Sydney, which is not a system I recommend haha.

Now it's mostly Payoneer to my local bank, or a direct SWIFT transfer. For SWIFT inward remittance, my bank wanted three letters for one payment: the contract, the invoice, and a separate letter explaining the "purpose of transfer". For a monthly salary. Every month, until I went in person and they finally set it up as a recurring service export. ke garne.

Things that are better than people think

• Power cuts are mostly history in the valley. Load-shedding used to be 12+ hours a day when I was in school. Now I almost never think about it.
• Fibre internet is decent and not expensive. I pay around NPR 1,500 a month for 100 Mbps and keep a mobile data backup.
• The cost of living means an Australian agency salary goes very far here.

Things that are hard

• Every bank process needs a physical visit and a stamp.
• Loneliness. All my uni friends are either in Australia or applying for Australia.
• Explaining to relatives that yes, I have a real job, no, I don't need to "go abroad" for it.

After last September a lot of my friends decided to leave. I understand why. But I'm staying, la. Somebody has to stay and vote haha.

If you're remote from Nepal or somewhere similar, what's your payment setup? Always looking for a less painful way.