Kathmandu

We arrived in Kathmandu after a rather boring 12 hour stopover in Thailand where we basically just wandered around the airport for hours. Mind you the transit lounge was much better than usual and allowed us to get a good sleep in (essential after I did the last 36 hours without sleep).

Arrival in Kathmandu was pretty scary, not the flight (excellent), not the entry and getting visas etc (a breeze and over in 15 minutes) but leaving the front doors of the airport we were absolutely mobbed, a group of 15 guys rushed in and started grabbing our bags and trying to drag us in every direction. We had nowhere to hide so after taking a brief moment to consult we just picked one of them at random and trusted to luck. And we were OK, We had been advised to head to Thamel which is a tourist suburb with about ten types of shop repeated about 100 times (accomodation, money changer, trekking company etc.) We signed up for a night at the outrageous tarriff of $14 for a double with ensuite. And started negotiating treks to Everest.

Anyway a day later and everything is pretty well sorted. We have booked a 21 day trip to Base camp and back starting tomorrow for $1800 (we will obviously be incommunicado) and have a rough idea of movements after that (Chitwan national park and then a 7 day road trip to Lhasa in tibet).

Kathmandu has been a real eye opener for this guy, having never been to Asia before I had my preconceptions, but here is a quick rundown of first impressions:

Surprisingly not that smelly! Weather is pleasently warm, roadrules are nonexistant, horns are more important than engines or brakes. Almost no animals (see the odd sick looking dog or cow lying on the street) - I am probably going to become a vegetarian for the duration, yes really, but the vege food is pretty good. Obviously massive unemployment and everyone is looking to make a buck off you, should have bought a lot more hard cash as is expensive to get local money, and you don't always know the exchange rate so are liable to get ripped off. (Though this hasn't really happened to us)

Big lessons learnt:
-know the exchange rate before you get there - stops you getting screwed.
-have a first night of accomodation planned. You are pretty vulnerable and not very maneuverable when protecting all your worldly goods.

16th April 2007: Premature Erudition

This is supposed to be a travel blog, but seeing as how it is still T minus two days we will just have to chalk this one up as a preamble. Things are starting to get pretty bloody real. We're close to having divested ourselves of non-transportable worldly possessions, and the last minute rush to polish off all the organisation is well and truly on. It feels like I still need another week to get everything properly ticked off, luckily Jane is far more composed and sorted out, which is just peachy.

After making an effort to get walking fit since Christmas all the busy work and endless hours spent trying to negotiate the barstardly mazes of bankers and beaureaucrats over the last month has pretty much destroyed any gains made. The walk to Everest that is the first item on our itinerary will be an absolute baptism of fire. Still, as St Augustine said; "per molestias eruditio" or loosely translated, "true education begins with physical abuse." So here starteth the lesson.

Robert