Mar 6 - 7: Orientation in Kathmandu

I was finally situated in my hotel, the Hotel Shakti, a good place a little ways away from the middle of things in Thamel. I was calm (at least, after I got over the fact that the Mountain Monarch trekking guy completely overcharged me -- $45.00 a night for my 2 additional nights at the hotel! Outrageous!! I finally managed to Zen out and focus on the positive...!)

I took a nap & woke up a few hours later, in darkness. Power was out. Apparently, Kathmandu has a schedule of daily power outages for several hours every day - something people get used to, apparently! I tried the shower - cold (possibly related to the power outage...)

I ventured out into the street -- everything was dusty and chaotic -- cars & motorcycles coming seemingly from every side with no apparent concept of lanes or real order (and an incessant honking of horns...) Not too many street lights, so I navigated the rough streets as best I could. I located the main tourist thoroughfare. There were not too many Westerners around, but lots of hawkers selling trinkets, and (in particular) offering hash, seemingly at every corner. After an hour or two, I felt burned out by it all and retreated to bed at my hotel! A hectic first day...

Mar 5 : Arrival - Kathmandu

After an excruciating (but almost completely trouble-free) full day of travel (i.e. 24 hours!) I arrive in Kathmandu. Exhausting trips on completely-full China Airlines flights from San Francisco to Taipei to Bangkok were followed by a much more pleasant final leg on a three-quarters-empty Thai Airways flight to Kathmandu. The task of getting a visa was painful and chaotic as expected, but it was quick, and soon enough, I had my bags, located the Mountain Monarch guy, and was on my way in to Kathmandu city center.

The city is warm and dusty (though not unpleasantly hot, at this time of year.) Traffic is noisy and seemingly without much order or reason to it. (There is a perpetual din of honking horns and the screeching brakes of motorcycles and taxis.) Nevertheless, we reached our hotel, the Hotel Shakti without incident! The place was impressive-seeming from the outside but really fairly basic. However, my room was a bright corner-room next to a pleasant balcony. Not bad! I was hit with a feeling of relief at having navigated this fairly stressful first leg of the trip, and I promptly crashed out for an emergency nap!

Almost Time for the Plunge

It's Wednesday afternoon, and I'm making final preparations for the long series of flights to Asia, leaving at midnight tonight. What to bring? It's not easy to plan for both a cold-weather trekking trip and a back-packing jaunt in hotter climes, all on the same trip. And - is a laptop computer an indulgence on this kind of trip, or is it an essential? (I'm leaning towards the latter, but I'm conflicted.) So, my no-compromise compromise is to bring two backpacks, one a day-pack that I can use on the trek to Everest Base Camp, the other an all-purpose travelers pack that can be used for more general schlepping across SE Asia. And yes, the computer is coming -- hopefully, I wont regret that one. The Nepal leg is relatively easy - I can deposit the bulk of my stuff at a hotel in Kathmandu, and bring the minimal essentials along in my day-pack on the trek. Before going onward to Thailand, however, some difficult decisions will need to be made!

So, tonight at Midnight, it's time for a fairly horrendous-sounding 14-hour flight to Taipei, followed by legs to Bangkok and, finally, Kathmandu, getting in at 4 PM local time.

I have signed up with Mountain Monarch trekking company for the Everest Base Camp trek. Far as I can tell, they have a very good reputation (for a local Nepal-based company) and they should have someone at the airport to greet me. Then, a couple of days of sight-seeing (and, presumably, recovery from jet-lag) in Kathmandu, followed by a flight to the higher-elevation Lukla and start of the trek proper, on Sunday.

OK, what am I forgetting...?!