The Trip to Kathmandu

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October 22
Well the days have blurred over the past 24 hours as I've travelled 13 hours to Tokyo (fortunately with a bulk head seat with full leg room) and then after a 2 hour stopover another 6 hours to Bangkok (again with an extra legroom seat) where I am now. Just waiting for my Thai Airways flight to Kathmandu...hoping to get some amazing views of the Himalayas including Everest!

I can only comment on the taxis in Bangkok because that's about all I saw. I had a great woman driver on the way in to the hotel who happily flipped the bird to anyone in her way and on the way out I got a driver in a very pink (yes I'm sure!) taxi with a souped up look, wing on the back and inside on the roof was all sorts of Thai script and then amazingly when he put the sun visor down...it was "engraved" ie he'd taken a knife to it and cut out some more Thai script...he made it to the airport in record time...which is why I have so much time now to update the blog!..hahah

I made the mistake of ordering Asian Vegetarian meals....I was on a flight recently and the person beside me got one and it looked delicious...well on Thai it was Ok...on Air Canada....deplorable!

I tried NO JET LAG a homeopathic remedy for jet lag and am not sure if it worked or not but I don't feel horrendous so I'm taking that as somewhat of a positive. As Tokyo is 13 hours ahead of Toronto and Bangkok is 11 hours it's not surprising when I finally got to a bed last night about 11 pm, I slept for all of about 3 hours!...:-) PS..the update on this comment 2 days later is that the NO JET LAG did NOT work!...:-)

While looking for reading material for the long flights I picked up November's National Geographic Adventure magazine with a headline story on Nepal's Amazing Comeback...referring to all the political/military strife over the past several years but as of last year the tourists were back...which is good because Nepal is VERY dependent on tourism. As I check the news daily, there is still a fair bit of political discord but it hasn't yet apparently result in any disturbances.

Just moments before I turned off the computer in Toronto as I left, I got confirmation that I'm staying at the Kathmandu Guest House which is an icon in Kathmandu and really in the travel world...everyone who has scaled Everest etc has stayed there over the years...it will be my first stay there!

The flights were fine and I managed to get the extra legroom seats on both flights to get me to Bangkok ...very lucky! The overnight in Bangkok was 8 hours spent going to and returning from a hotel where I slept little. The airport terminal in BKK is incredible...with all the fancy shops in the world you can think of in a beautiful light bright architectural site.

It will be great to get to Kathmandu so I actually have something interesting to write about!...

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