Flashback to my first few days in Nepal: To cut a long story short (like I'm capable of that), the cab driver, who lent me the Visa money, took me to a guesthouse in Kathmandu, where I discovered that Nepal's capital is not unlike Bangkok, only smaller, dirtier and more frantic still. In my imagination Kathmandu had been a quiet, chilled-out town, surrounded by picturesque mountains and catering to a small select group of people, who come to Nepal to experience the wonders of the Himalaya. As it turned out, Kathmandu is anything but quiet, it caters to every kind of tourist and you can't see the mountains for all the smog. In any case, I was here to trek, or hike as we say in Oz, and had barely settled into my room, when I
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