Around Kathmandu...

We have had difficulty posting earlier today due to signal problems and internet café slow speed and kicking us offline… so here is the update on the past few days in Kathmandu…

We arrived in Kathmandu early Friday morning, and after a long wait in line for visa’s, enjoyed a shower and a 5 hour nap through the afternoon! Saturday we were out and about on our own until the evening.

We had a stunning view of the Himalaya from a distance on our plane ride in; although we think it was the Annapurna region not Everest region where we are going. We met the other members of our trek group, Tammy and Holly, starting with the van ride from the airport – they are both in their 30’s and Holly is an ER doctor so that is extra peace of mind!

Kathmandu is quite a city; traffic flow is organized chaos, and it is amazing we have not seen a single accident given that cars motorcycles and pedestrians flow through the streets, no lanes, no regard to the “other side of the street”, and I’m sure they have no idea what “following too closely” would mean! We think driving around today and crossing the street while walking around has been more dangerous than the trek we are about to undertake!

Met our guide Harka last night who debriefed us about the trek, etc. what to expect, what to pack, getting us correct size down parka’s, etc. He also took us out into Kathmandu at night to a traditional restaurant with Nepali/Newari food and dance. We would not have ventured out in the dark without an escort, as the streets are dark (NO street lights!), sidewalks are uneven to put it lightly (craters, etc.) and feral dogs line the streets… in fact Brian stepped on one just laying on the dark sidewalk last night and lucky he was not bit! Surprisingly they look nasty, but we have yet to see any snarl at us.

We had a tour around Kathmandu to two Buddhist stupa’s today, plus Durbar Marg (square) where there are many temples around the 17th Century old palace. We also visited a holy river with burning ghats (cremation sites). Our guide Shree sang Nepali songs and told us the stories of the Budda. Many things to remember, we need to write down the names so we can remember ourselves.

Well, we embark tomorrow, 5 am departing from the hotel for 6:05 flight to Lukla. We have to finish packing our gear bags, and weigh them to make sure that we do not have a total of more than 20 kilo’s including our daypacks (approx. 40 lbs).

We don’t know if we will be able to post while on trek, although we might be able to send a short message now and then to Brian’s brother via text message, which seems more reliable, than data service. So, we’ll update as we can, but probably will be sparse.
Namaste!