Blogs from Kathmandu, Nepal, Asia

We all met for breakfast at 07:00 and Rusha met us. I thought she was going to sort out finances for our trip. We owed money for the bungee jumps but she owed us for the cheaper day tour and for the lunches and dinner at Pokhara. I aked her about it but she said she was going to just leave it. I also figured that it would work out about even so we were happy to leave it as well. Nick’s pick-up was due at 07:00 but was a little late so we had a chance to say goodbye. After breakfast we finished packing and were ready on time fore our 08:30 pick-up. It was also a little late but traffic was fine and we got to the airport with plenty of time to spare. ... read more

For the first time since arriving I had a lousy nights sleep. I woke to dogs barking their heads off at 3AM. Followed by a drunk or potentially crazy guy wandering down my street raving about god knows what. (turns out the Nepali have crazy folks too) and then around 5AM the rooster started. Its not so cute now. Apparently, there were more celebrations last night, but I was so tired and sore I retired at a respectable hour which I now regret. I could have been drinking with drunk/crazy guy I didn’t have to check out the hotel to midday so I decided to go for a walk. I hadn’t made it to the wood carving museum so I thought this morning would be a good time to try and find it. Instead I ran ... read more

Even though we arrived in Kathmandu this evening, I am going start with the significance of the boda boda in Uganda. The boda boda is between a 50 and 300 cc motorcycle and is typical means of public transport in Uganda. There are buses, but they only go city to city and taxis and private cars are expensive. There are boda stages on almost every corner or you stand by the road side and one will pull over. Prices are negotiable depending on what you are transporting, how many you are transporting and how far you are going. There is now even a trend of Safe Boda where the driver is vetted by a company, you can contact them using an app and they must provide the passenger a helmet and obey all traffic laws. Sounds ... read more

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

The last day. Nothing planned. We tried to sleep in a little, despite the bell-ringing, that happens every day from 6:00 onward. It's to announce oneself to the hindu gods when entering a shrine. Took some time to properly stash our bags for the way back. Had breakfast, printed tickets, went out to buy the last few things we wanted .In my case, without much luck: The things I wanted most were: some new/extra packing cubes, a sleeping mask and maybe one well-fitting goretex / fishermanspants. No luck on any of those. Shop in, shop out. They're all the same here. There's your prototype 'the north fake' trekking shop, with all kinds of trekking clothes and accessoires. A hemp shop, with mostly backpacks. A Nepali/festival-kind of clothing store and shops for fabrics (yak, cashmere, pashima).rinse, repeat. ... read more