Blogs from Thamel, Kathmandu, Nepal, Asia

We had another early hours alarm to be ready for collection by Ransinga and our driver at 7.20 am. I can't say I leapt out of bed raring to go! Still, we didn't have to travel far to the airport - five minutes and we were there. I was really sad to be leaving this wonderful country and its people behind. I had grown especially fond of Ransinga, who had a brilliant self-deprecating sense of humour. He described himself as tall, dark and handsome - I could grant him the dark and handsome bits but he was smaller than me! He said he felt sure we would meet again, in either this life or another one. And of course I never got to meet King Jimmy 5. He has said his only wife is the only ... read more

Did you know that the Nepalese flag is the only one in the world that isn't square or rectangular? Me neither. It's like two pennants stuck together and is all the more interesting because of that. We initially decided to stay in Kathmandu because our future plans included trips to two nearby countries both at reasonably high altitudes. Kathmandu was the closest we could get and acted as a 'hub' for both countries. It would also mean we could acclimatise in the slightly elevated altitude of Kathmandu before moving higher. It is, however, also incredibly difficult to get all the visas and other documentation in place independently so we started to investigate using a 'facilitator' many months before leaving home. It was all a bit of a lottery ... How did we know that the names ... read more

Returning from the monkey temple, yesterday, we had this interesting idea of just getting small bits of food in different places, which worked great. That evening and the next day, we took it easy, had some good conversations with mostly Marynard, but also Jarod and Julien from Germany. In the afternoon, we picked up a simcard. In the end we went to our non-preferred provider, ncell, which they say has great coverage in the big cities, but not so much when we go hiking. We'll see. The reason for the change is that after going to many different shops, we couldn't find one that offered a lot of data for a good price. We should have gone for the deal at the airport: 28GB for 1200 rupees (9 euros), but the best thing we could find ... read more

Arrived safe and sound. After some initial trouble passing customs, finding the right truck and getting trough the busy Kathmandu traffic, we arrived at our destination: shangri-la boutique hotel and had a hearthy welcome from the manager, Bino. Had food (an Indian curry for me) at a place I think was called 'French kitchen', with Holly from England, who we met in the bus. The next day we arranged a driver and guide and went to see Patan and the royal palace. We would never have found all the small places that were interesting. Nothing is marked. No street names entryways, signs, etc. So on the way there, we dove into a small alley / square, took off our shoes and went up the stairs into a house. At the top, there was a small 2 ... read more

After a solid 17ish hour journey we arrived in Kathmandu. Wow we’ve missed Asia! As soon as we landed we felt the humidity and heat again, there was a plethora of taxi drivers wanting to be your best friend AND our bank card was playing up again -just like old times! We met “Binayle” and helped us out with a cheap fair for the 3 of us into Thamel (one of the districts in Kathmandu). He was kind enough to walk us to an ATM and our hostel, Shantipur. The streets were dusty, narrow at times, cows all over the show and loads of smiling faces. The streets were decorated with flags pinned up like bunting and the goods in the shops looked awesome! Also the prices were a welcome treat too. When we got to ... read more