4th May - Faff Day

Up late as late night last night. Spent the morning having a leisurely breakfast at the Northfield Cafe and catching up on my blog and photos etc.

Johnnie has a problem with his flights back to Tamil Nadu in India as the company has gone with are on strike. Expedia India sent an urgent email asking him to call immediately. They have messed up a connecting flight and suggested an impossible alternative where the connecting flight leaves before the first flight arrives. Why are company service centers sooooo incompetent???!!!!! I am still shocked at the utter incompetence of Vodofone UK. I still have to sort this out when I return to the UK.

We phoned the Expedia emergency number and gave up after 40 mins of being on hold and £5.30 in cost! Johnnie asked an Indian friend to then try calling as it is much cheaper from India than Nepal. He was on hold for 1 hour on 2 different lines and still did not get though. We both sent multiple emails to them and no response at all! Rubbish!

This whole episode put a really downer on the day and it really frustrated Johnnie and was just a waste of many hours. He has no idea at the moment what date he can fly home. His visa expires on the 7th and that is when his original flight was booked for....

I really want some exercise now and get out of the big city into the mountains. I will head off once this head cold goes and Johnnie leaves to return to India. I am planning on biking to Pokhara and then trekking for a few days. I still have a cold and was not feeling up to a run (especially with the business of the streets and the bad pollution in Kathmandu). About 10% of the locals wear face masks because of the pollution. I went for a swim for an hour or so instead and did 200 lengths. I felt much better afterward.

Johnnie had still had no success with his flights by the time I returned in the afternoon.

I spent several hours on the internet at the Northfield cafe organising photos and trying to catch up on my blog (but failing miserably due to the rubbish internet connection).

Emma, Ang and Liam joined us for the evening at the cafe. It is Emma's last night in Kathmandu and she flies home to the UK tomorrow. She very kindly offered to take some things of mine back to the UK so that I do not have to post them. It meant that I spent time organising all of my things and throwing out clothes and equipment that I do not need. Emma took a whole bag with her. Thanks Emma!

I was not hungry but the others went off for burgers etc.

Chilled night as Emma has early flight.

A bit of a nothingness day..... I'm starting to get bored of Kathmandu now after the crazy pace of life in the months beforehand.

3rd May - Everest Flight and Hot Chilli

Beautiful morning flying over the Himalayas. Great photos of Everest :) I want to climb it now....

Up at 5.20 to get ready catch a taxi with Johnnie and Kathrine to go and to the airport for 6.30. We fought off the touts trying to sell us things and asking for money to show us to the ticket desks. The ticket desks were very well marked as was the office to pay the airport tax but the touts seemed to think that they were providing a service and wanted to be paid. Everyone has to have a job and I don't begrudge them that but it is getting very irritating being bothered all the time. Thamel ,where we are all staying, is very busy and touts literally bother you every 2 meters trying to persuade you to visit their shop, take a ride in their taxi or cycle rickshaw or buy drugs. I don't mind them asking once but when you say "No" they then ask 2 more times. At first I started saying "No thanks" and I have no ended up either just ignoring them or just staying "NO!" (very un-English).


Our flight was delayed but we had no idea how long it would be delayed for. The mountain flights departure time is very variable based upon when the weather is good and when they can ensure that the customers will be able to see Everest. If you do not see the mountain on the flight then the companies will either give you your money back or offer you a different flight.



Johnnie looked like death warmed up after a major session on green-moonshine yesterday. He slept in the taxi ride and then in the airport. Bless......

It was a good job that we kept on going to the counter to ask when our flight would leave as it was not announced on the announcement system on the departure board.

We eventually got on the plane about 8.30. We were traveling with a large group of well off Indians.



The flight was really fantastic and well worth doing. Everyone was laughing as for the first 10 minutes Johnnie was actually fast asleep in his seat - on a scenic flight. Kathmandu looks huge from the air.

It took about 10 minutes before we started to see huge mountains. We were flying at about 7000m. The company hands out a diagram of the mountain ranges so that as you fly past you can distinguish the different mountains. The plane flies out with the mountains on one side of the plane and then back with the mountains on the other side so that everyone gets a view at some point through their own window. They also did several flybys of Everest itself so that everyone got to see it several times. Throughout the flight the attendant comes up and takes each passenger in turn to the cock pit so that every one gets a chance to look out at the un-interrupted views from the pilots view.

It was a lovely sunny morning and the mountains were incredible. So majestic and huge. It really made me want to do some serious mountaineering and to get out into the wilderness.

On these photos Everest is the mountain in the middle with the cloud forming off from the top of the peak to the right. There was about 10 minutes of the flight when passengers could see the mountain from either side of the plane.


The Indians on board were being very Indian and all crowding up and sitting on each other in order to look out of the cockpit - much to the irritation of the flight attendant.

The flight lasted about 1 hour. Even if I had managed to bike to Everest base camp and though these mountains I would still have been glad to see them in this alternative way. On a flight you really get an idea of the scale of them. A fab thing to do.


I saw these boxes on the way out of the airport. Awesome! Which way is up?????

We went for a long brunch when we got back to Thamel and then all went off to nap.

In the afternoon I went to check out my bike. They have fitted a brand new rim fitted as the back wheel rim was all cracked (this was new in Aus)! The bike shop have done a really good job of cleaning it up. She looks fantastic now. All new and sparkly. I am really happy with it.


We all (Emma, Angela, Liam, Katherine and Johnnie) met up at 7 and after some faffing to buy some wine and organise the group we all walked together to Hot Chilli. This is the same restaurant that Johnnie and I ate in 2 nights ago.

It is a great little restaurant serving Nepalese food at Nepalese prices. We ordered one of every dish that we did not recognise. It meant that we had a feast of about 12 dishes between the 5 of us. It was very much fun to try new things. Most dishes were about 75P. They had no problem with us drinking our own wine and we did order other drinks from them too.

The staff were really good again (like 2 nights ago).

I have a very silly voice at the moment as I am fighting off a cold. It is frustrating that when you stop pushing and relax you get a cold. It is forcing me not to go off doing silly amounts of exercise and instead just sit around and spend time with new buddies.

We had a lovely evening - if rather drunken. Johnnie was off the booze after yesterday's heavy session.....

2nd May - Swimming and Durbar Square

Tired to go for a swim first thing but the pool was being cleaned and so went back and had breakfast with Johnie. It was very frustrating as the internet connections here are really rubbish and it took 2.5 hours of faffing on the internet to book the hotel I want in Hong Kong. This was after I had spent ages choosing one yesterday. This is one reason why I am currently really behind on my blog.... rubbish internet connection to update it.

I am very excited about meeting up with Jacob in Hong Kong. It will be another break from biking and budget. Even though it took ages to book the hotel it will be very worth it! We have booked an awesome place.

Went for a long swim at lunch time. When I first got in the pool I could hardly breathe. It was very cold and I am fighting off a cold. It took a few lengths to warm up and I ended up doing 200 lengths and felt much better afterward. I am missing doing exercise but I can't do much at the moment as I can't breathe very easily. The cigarette smoke from the 4 chain smokers that I am spending most of my time with has not helped neither has the bad pollution in Kathmandu.

When I got back from my swim I found Johnie sitting in the same place. He had been there since breakfast drinking beer and the green moonshine that we got from the cafe yesterday. His head was completely addled. He was not like a normal drunk person or behaving like he normally does when he is drunk. He behaved like he had lost about 75IQ points in the last couple of hours but was not acting drunk. It was very strange. The green moonshine really is very "special" stuff.

Katherine came to join us at the cafe for a beer and said that she had got a good deal on bookings with the guy at the reception at our hotel. Therefore, I went and asked him about a mountain scenic flight booking with transportation to the airport and back. Other deals we had been offered were $160 (USD) not including the transportation to and from the airport. The guy at the reception offered $140 (USD) including transportation and so we all booked! Awesome. Booked on a flight to see Everest and the Himalayers tomorrow morning. :-) Have to be up early though as need to be at the airport for 6.30.

We left Thamel about 4 and got a Cycle Rickshaw to Dunbar Square. It is very strange being carried along by someone else on a bike. It is a great way to see the city though and they know all the little back lanes and are very fast at negotiating traffic. The old streets are lovely and narrow and very busy. The architecture is fab.

Johnnie was on "go slow" with green moonshine brain and so it took ages to get anywhere. He has borrowed my bike horn and was using it against the touts when the bothered us too much. He had several of them in fits of giggles as they were just not expecting it...... He tried to sell them the horn for a lax (100000RS) and each time they bargained would increase the price and warm the metal with a lighter, rub it and pretend it was gold. Some of them did not get it - others really did. One lady could not help but laugh and laugh. He did not come across as drunk but he just behaved very very strange. That green moonshine......

We arrived at Dunbar square about 30 mins before we where supposed to meet the others at the Krishna Temple and so we had a wonder round. The architecture is very impressive. Nepal is very different to India. This architecture has been strongly influenced by China. Nepal was cut off from the outside world for about 200 years before it opened up for the first time in the 1950s. During the 200 or so years of separation there was not much development of infrastructure for most Nepalese people. The main development was concentrated on making more and more elaborate palaces etc for the royal family. Kathmandu was a much smaller place with several large towns which are have now merged together to form one huge city. he population of the country was only 8 million at this time anyway and most people lived in the hills.

We sat and waited for the others to arrive for about 30 mins and then Johnnie disappeared off to go to the toliet leaving me to wait for the others but did not return for 30-40mins. Apparently he felt rude just using the facilities of the bar in the square and so stopped off for a rum and coke at the same time.....


I actually enjoyed just sitting there people watching. There is a main street that goes through the square. There are no gates to get in and out of the square and locals walk though carrying huge loads on their backs and head. Some of the old men that are doing this look like they are about 70 and they are carrying weights of 60kg. Sometimes their loads have the weight written on them in marker pen.

The clothes and the way of carrying loads is very different to India. There are 4 main ethnic groups in Nepal. One group where originally from North India. They were high caste Indians which emigrated to Nepal to escape the Muslim invasion of North India several hundred years ago. Therefore there is a large group of people in Nepal that look very Indian but behave very differently. The English skills of the touts and the people working in the Tourist trade is generally very good and better than my experience of India. However, that could be just because most of my time in India was not in major tourist areas.


After we gave up waiting for the others we went for a wonder round. I love this guards socks. Everything else black and white - but bright yellow socks :-)

As a tourist you are expected to pay a few hundred rupees to get in at one of the security gates. However as there are so many tourists milling about the place and several entrances to the square it would be reasonably easy to get away with not paying this fee. We did pay like good little children.....

It was a shame that we left it until late in the day to visit the square as by this time the weather had turned. It is taking a bit to get used to the fact that normally the mornings are beautiful and sunny and then the thunderstorms roll in mid afternoon. We really should get up early (most Nepalese are up and about by 6 - very different to India who are only up and about by 8) and then head to bed early. It does not happen when everyone has had a drink in the evening and the night just continues as everyone is having fun.... Emma, Ang and Liam do not seem to surface until midday.

This deity outside the main palace area just looked like a big orange blob - orange paint on a big rock with orange material wrapped round it . I am not sure what the deity is but it is very different to the Hindu deities which are always beautifully carved and painted - usually with a face etc. There were many people bowing and praying to it. I know when many people travel to the East they find it a very spiritual experience and come home inspired by the alternative culture. I just feel even stronger that religions are all insane and no one has the right answer or the truth. People can find anything to pray to - it is just part of human nature to idolise.


We gave up trying to find the others by about 7 and headed back to Thamel on a bike Rickshaw. We bartered 50RS but then gave a good tip. I prefer doing this. It does generally mean that you get much better service in India and Nepal.

We were going to go to the Hot Chill Restaurant again (were we went yesterday) but this time with Liam, Emma and Ang but as we had not found them and they were not answering FB messages etc we ate at the Northfield cafe again. There are 2 restaurants - both owned by the Hotel were we are staying. We ate in the smaller one. Katherine joined us. I had a Thai Red Curry but it was rubbish and so sent it back and got and instead got a bad Butter Chicken Curry. There is so much variety available in Thamel: Mexican, Italian, French, American, Thai , Indian and Nepalese. However, what you end up getting are Nepalese versions of the different dishes. It is lovely to have some western food but it is not exactly fine dinning.....

Ang and Liam turned up about 10ish. Apparently they had been at the square at the same time as us but must have been sitting somewhere different. We all compared photos and time stamps to try and work out where they were and where we were and how we all managed to miss each other for 1 hour! We failed to work it out then but later on we found out that there are 2 Dunbar squares in Kathmandu. They were at Patum Dunbar Square and we were at Kathmandu Dunbar Square. The buildings are very similar in architecture and both and a Krishna Temple..... oops!

Johnnie, Ang and Liam decided to finish the bottle of the green stuff! Madness. It is like fire water..... I was not really drinking and so it was funny to watch them. For once in my life it was not me making a fool of myself :-) (I made up for it tomorrow night though).

I gave up waiting for them all to go to bed as we have to be up at 5.30 for a mountain flight to see Everest tomorrow morning. They did not stop drinking till 1ish.

I felt rather bad for this lovely security guard who was trying to get rid of us. He sleeps in the corridor and we were keeping him up.....

1st May - Labour Day and Hot Chilli

We were up early and I met Johnie for breakfast at the Freedom Cafe. As we were eating we heard loads of banging of drums and then saw hundreds people dressed in red marching past along the street. As they were passing the shops along the road put down their shutters as did the restaurant where we were sitting. We were told by the staff that it was unlikely that there would be any trouble but it was just a precaution.

It is Labour Day today and it was the Maoists that were marching. The Maoists have a lot of support within Nepal. A few years ago they actually over through the government with the support of some other groups and Nepal became a democracy rather than a Monarchy. While this upheaval was taking place Nepal was unsettled and tourists stopped visiting. The Maoists did not win over all control. The last few years Nepal has been much more stable and the tourists have returned.

There are still areas within Nepal which are extremely poor (starvation and malnutrition) and there is a large amount of support for the Maoists in these regions. There has always been a huge gap between the rich and the poor in Nepal with the aristocracy only spending money on building grander and grander palaces and nothing on infrastructure before Nepal opened their boarders in the 1950's. After this point there was still a Monarchy which did not invest in infrastructure for several decades.


We all spent hours over breakfast again, nattering and faffing on the internet and then went for a long wander round Kathmandu to get goggles (from the Adidas shop) and look for motorcycle shops. It was interesting to see what the rest of the city was like (other than Thamal - the tourist area that is). There were loads of western shops. I even spotted a Starbucks. Nepal is very different in that regard from India.

I bought some maps for trekking and biking around different areas of the country. I spoke to several people and found out that the well known treks are so popular that I don't have to pay for a guide and it will be very safe. Awesome!


We did not manage to find the motorbike shops before it got too late and the rainstorms arrived.... We did get to the a wine shop and bought a few nice bottles for the next few days as a treat. This sort of wine is almost impossible to get in India. We also went to the "Master Baker" shop ;-)



We got a little lost on the way back to Thamal and popped into a cafe called "Hot Chilli" which was advertising momos for 35RS. As we walked though the door the rain really started heavily and we decided to stay for a while. It is great to be inside when there is a storm outside and it is raining heavily on the corrugated iron...

The menu was fab as there were loads of dishes I had never heard of before. We ordered loads of different dishes and also some Tibetan wine. The food was excellent. The "wine" was a green coloured spirit which was like fire water! We asked if we could buy a bottle for Emma and Angela but they said that there was no bottle. We were a bit confused by this. Eventually we found out that the "wine" is a homebrew made of chillies, rice, barley, wheat and other things.... Awesome. They stored it in clear plastic bags and decantered it into an empty water bottle for us. The staff were really friendly. We were the only westerners in there. It was good to get out of the tourist Thamel.

Did not get back until 12ish. We had a lovely walk home as the streets were really quiet. I was a fab time to see the streets and take photos of the architecture. No one around to bother us. Fun evening.

30th April - Chilled Day in Thamel

Raining very heavily through the night and there were floods in the morning. I did not get much sleep again as the rain was really heavy and so did not get up for breakfast until about 10 - by which time most of the floods had subsided and they were only ankle deep.

I have been eating far too much over the last few days and enjoying time of my bike and so I had a "light breakfast" of fruit and pancake instead of the normal feast (the others had steak eggs) and but did still take 3 hours over it. Loads of coffee and nattering with Johnie. I also started to catch up on my blog.

Angela and Emma joined us about 11 with their Australian friend, Liam. I got feed up with the cigarette smoke and took myself off and sat in the sun for a while and tried to catch up on my blog, chat with some friends in the UK and also skype my family. I have not done any of these things for a while and it was really lovely to do so. I love talking to my friends and family but I am still in no way home sick nor wanting to go back to the UK any time soon. I am having far too much fun for that!







I went for a long swim in the afternoon at the pool of another hotel and then later met everyone for a meal at the Northfield cafe. It was a really fun night with too much wine and too much food.....