Blogs from Thamel, Kathmandu, Nepal, Asia - page 8

Planning and preparations… And here I am… In Kathmandu… Honestly it seemed like this day would never happen… Probably because I started thinking about this trip a year and a half ago! So I guess I had quite some time to prepare myself for this journey… Still the more time you have, the further you postpone the preparations… At least that’s how it was in my case… And since I couldn’t really decide where it was exactly that I wanted to go, the itinerary was changing throughout quite rapidly… The more I was reading about different countries and the more I followed the adventures of fellow bloggers, the more confused I was getting and the more chaotic everything seemed… I have to say at no time at all I felt prepared for this trip, neither physically, ... read more

Landed safely. A couple of uneventful flights - the hardest part was getting through the queues at Heathrow - I dislike third world airports, especially when they're in supposedely first world countries. Views of the snow-topped Himalaya of to the side of the plane as we flew into Kathmandu made the feet tingle slightly. Met by Sugam (Shaleish's son) at the airport and efficiently transported to the "penthouse suite" of the moonlight hotel in Thamel. Don't get too excited, it is a bit special for Kathmandu but I've already had a few polite arguments with the bare-bone electrics. Bit of a waste not to be sharing it though...wrong continent again...ho hum. We fly early tomorrow morning (06:45 if all goes well) and the skies are looking clear so early start and should be on the hills ... read more

Nepal Kathmandu We arrive at Kathmandu (Aka - K) airport on schedule with Jet Airways via Delhi (where the Transit Lounge is one of the best we have seen in all our travels! Delhi has come a long way). Jet service is ace as usual. After the immigration formalities we are met by Siling our friend and Director/Owner of The Responsible Travellers Ltd. It’s good to see him after 4 years. The drive to our hotel in Thamel (Hotel Thamel!) – the backpacking heart of K - is as usual noisy, bumpy and dusty – welcome to Nepal. It’s a hot 27-30 C & slightly humid. However after about an hour we get used to the chaos and feel pretty much at home. The thing you need to know about walking around ... read more

Hello Everyone! We had a bussights seeing day. It was one I'll never forget. Out first stop was the Monkey Temple, Buddhist temple on the highest hill in Katmandu. Obviously it was named for all the monkeys that inhabit the area. It had a view of the whole valley, but the air quality is so poor you really can't see much. By the way, today was the first day of a huge two week Hindu festival so the traffic was terrible. The second spot was very disturbing to me. It was along side the "most holy" river in Nepal. I think it was called the Great Place of Cremation. the Hindu people believe in cremation of their dead. This area is where they do their cremations, all out in the open. Large stone platforms, called Ghats, ... read more

Hello from Kathmandu, The day I arrived in Kathmandu, on Oct 2nd, I was feeling sick, so I spent most of it resting in the room. Unfortunately, this illness hasn't really started to go away until tonight. The next day I got up and walked to one o the famous stoopa's, or Buddhist temples, in Nepal. It is called Swayambunath. Dad and I decided to walk there as well, because it is only about a 20 minute walk. We're staying in Thamel, which is another touristy area of Kathmandu. I found it really difficult to describe Bangkok and Chiang Mai, because theres so much going on. It's even more so the situation in Kathmandu. The city has been really 'developing' in the past few years. There are basically 3-4 story buildings everywher, so that the whole ... read more