Same same but different they say in south east Asia, and ain’t that the truth. Not much has changed in the year since I’ve been here in the city of brotherly love (men hold each others hands in Nepal, with no sexual connotation what so ever). Singing bowls, guided treks, North Fake (aka knock-off North Face), and much much more is offered from street hustlers the minute you leave the grounds of the glorious Kathmandu Guest House. Life ain’t too shabby right now, I can tell you that.
After a visit to the holiest crematorium in the city, we visited the Monkey Temple for some of the best views of the Kathmandu valley you can get. Traffic was the usual, grid locked and mayhem, as we returned to the guest house for the day.
Chelsea and I set out to patronage some of the local trekking shops for some souvenirs and other random items. A few new pairs of pants, a jacket, some other paraphernalia, and we headed back home. Pappa Eoin had arranged a little roof-top soirée for us this evening.
Cocktails, appys, and some good laughs were had by all. Our fellow Trekkers on this journey are quite the bag of mixed nuts. We’re here with Eoin (our leader, aka Pappa, or Coach) and his wife Colleen, Bob and Diane (a Canadian couple celebrating their 1year anniversary the day we are scheduled to reach Kala Pattar), AK and B (a Nepalese couple who are our local tour guides while in Kathmandu, making their first trek to Everest Base Camp), and Graham and Christine (a couple of Kiwis from New Zealand). Side note about New Zealand, Sir Edmund Hillary (first official summiter of Mt Everest) was a Kiwi, and the country has both of picture of Hillary and Everest on their $5 note.
All in all, a great group of people to spend the next 20 days with.
I was able to secure myself a SIM card with Internet connectivity for the trip. For those of you following along at home, we should be able to have a fairly consistent flow of articles going up the our site.
More to come…