Kathmandu

Monday was supposed to be a relaxed start to the trip. Have coffee with Bri and Becky, get some toiletries, buy a hat, have lunch, go home and finalise the packing before catching a train to the airport for my 5:20 PM flight. It was all going to plan until I checked the time on my ticket at 2:20.... Shit, 15:20, not 5:20. Frantic call to taxi, frantic throwing of random unpacked stuff onto the footpath out the front and some frantic driving from my very eager cabbie while I packed on the back seat.

Shouldn't have bothered, I was 15 minutes late and I could feel the eyes of the people at the counter accusing me of being an idiot. So much for numeric literacy. The next flight wasn't till Wednesday, but yes, there was a flight at 9:30 that night leaving from Sydney. So I got my flight changed to leave from Sydney at no extra cost, dashed downstairs and got a Virgin Blue flight to Sydney on the internet. The flight from Sydney was via Melbourne, and I was going to get to Thailand in time for my connecting flight to Kathmandu. The rest of the journey was the usual cattle class/transit lounge tedium.

I got to Kathmandu yesterday around midday. The land is very flat coming from the south, then 20 minutes before landing Mountains appear everywhere and you fly into Kathmadu. Over the top of fields and farms, then getting closer one sees the vehicles going everywhere on the streets, people everywhere, coloured signs stacked on top of everything and buildings half built/half falling apart. These things rushed into sight before the exciting feeling of landing at the start of the adventure.

Raju, our guide for Mustang Valley, picked me up at the airport. He is a very quiet guy, who is really helpful. It was nice having someone to help me deal with taxis and touts in my sleep deprived state. Julian was at the Hotel Red Planet, where he had said he would be, so everything fell into place after my chaotic start in Brisbane.

Walking down the street for the first time to get some lunch, the smell of rotting vegetables, chooks, exhaust and a hint of kerosene greeted me. A familiar smell from South America, and not as unpleasant as it sounds.

This morning I got up at 4 due to a yet-to-be-calibrated body clock and did some early morning yoga. Others were up in the area, chanting and even doing some laughing sessions as the sun came up; not a bad environment in which to do a practice.

For breakfast we wandered around, sampling various bakeries. Good bread. We had 2 cups of tea, 1 cup of chai and a cup of decent coffee before 10, and bought some spices, tea and a teapot in the markets. It is worth walking for 10 minutes to get away from the tourist area, where things are three times cheaper... and three times spicier!

Julian and I have had a chat with Raju about what to do in the two weeks before we go to The Mustang Valley. We are going to do 11 days of the Ananpurna trail from Pokhara to Jomsom, from where we will do the 10 days in Mustang, and then continue on the Anapurna trail back to Pokhara. In all about one month's worth of trecking. This also means that we won't be taking the Pokhara-Jomson flights, so the money saved pays for our porter and park permits. We will have a porter for the Anapurna Trail, the same guy who will be our porter in The Mustang Valley. We leave on Saturday, so there won't be any posts for a good month, but when I get back I will make sure that there is a post full of superlatives.