Tibet Holiday Inn Kathmandu

... by Maoist activists during the strike and one of those was an ambulance.

The bus from Chitwan back to Kathmandu was supposed to take 4/5 hrs but 8 hours later after a lot of traffic we finally got back to the city cramped legs and dead ipod!

As it was Nick's bithday we bailed on the obligatory last group dinner and headed off to an Indian restaurant called the Third Eye - there weren't any eyes on ...

... what is rock and snow and what is sky. Nuptse rises nearby, blocking out all but a sliver of Everest. The scene holds the stories of the 300 people who have made it to the top, and the 140 who have died trying. There is also the story of its conquest, in 1953.
At 6:30 am on the morning of May 29, Hillary and the Sherpa Tenzing Norgay set out from camp XI equipped with oxygen tanks and necessities for their final ascent ...

... fait de 40 mn a Cochin, je matais Docteur Doolittle... Mouais.
Ce qui devait arriver arriva, je devais arriver a Delhi a 10h30, puis aller au terminal international, et faire le check in pour mon vol sur Kathmandu dans la foulee. Mais on est arrives a 10h45, le temps de recuperer mon sac il etait 11h05, et le temps que le bus de transfert nous amene il etait 11h20... Pour un vol a 12h10, le check in allait jusqu'a 11h10 bien sur. Pour une ...

... a few days I leave all this behind and head to Sydney, a far less chaotic city. For those who haven't been traveling for so long, or that still have not set food in India, this city seems to them unbearable and buy an outbound ticket as soon as they can. But if one is able to tolerate the chaos perspiring from this city, Kathmandu offers the chance to visit plenty of things in the same city and in the surrounding villages and valleys. The region ...

... on a trek. I'm so very excited! It is just a wee little 4 day 3 night gig out of Pokhara which goes through mountain villages and I'll sleep at local tea houses along the way. I just bought a sleeping bag and a lovely little Gortex ********** a street vendor (lol!!!) so hopefully they will work. Although there are plenty of North Face vendors here with all the trekking gear you might need, I heard someone refer to some as "North Fake"... and they may be right as sometimes the logo ...

... i had serious doubts with qantas). i was stoked to have had the accom organised as so was not up to dealing with the dozens of guys waiting to pounce to take my to their cousins/brothers/great hotel. my airport transfer was a rickety old van and on the way to hotel got my first glimpse of the Holy cow, ambling slowly across the street stopping traffic. i would like to say that i wandered round Thamel a wee bit but was absolutely exhausted so straight to bed ...

... we fnally received word that weather had finally forced back the other half of our team. They were double-timing it down the glacier in order to meet us in Askole.
Even though I didn't get to cross the high pass, the trek was really quite spectacular. The Pakistani guides and porters were really great to be around. In fact, I would probably attempt this trek again some day...but maybe not right away.

... to fly to Chit wan where the 3 day conference was being held & Leigh & I were dropped to the Hyatt. Beautiful hotel with generators. - very necessary with 16 hours of blackouts a day!.










Just in the drive from the airport was amazed at how different Nepal feels from what I expected..... Very Indian, middle eastern feel, narrow, dusty roads, lots of traffic & slow to get anywhere, not as many ...

... she pointed out, I was solely responsible for this state of affairs. It wasn't easy to reason, what with all the thunder, but I eventually managed to persuade her that the best course of action would be to press on to Taropani where we could discuss it indoors.

Luckily Taropani, despite being uphill from where we had stood so miserably, was only an hour away. It is a collection of run-down guest houses that, in this foul weather, looked rather sad and dilapidated. We ...