Kathmandu

After a long goodbye with Kathryn, I was on my way. I think it's a
good thing that she's is going off to San Francisco, it will keep her
mind off the fact that I'm gone. She's doing her first triathlon on
Sunday, the Pacific Grove Tri I think it is. As she only entered and
started training about 6 weeks ago, finishing will be a great result.
When she was thinking about it, she asked me what I thought. At the
time, she was thinking of doing the sprint so she asked the guy that
was training for an 8000 m peak and that has done a few Ironman
distance tri's what he thought. I said: "Why don't you just do the
Olympic distance, it's not that much farther…" So yes, she's doing
the Olympic for the first triathlon. It would have been fun to be
there and cheer her on, as I couldn't, I figured the least I could do
was kit out her bike with the fastest gear that I had. For the
bike-geeks in the crowd, she's now riding a De Rosa Merak, with Campy
Bora wheels and some Hed aero bars. Aside from the frame, it's pretty
much the exact bike I used when I was in Hawaii :)

I think the Thai people are wonderful. I flew from London to Bangkok,
then back to Kathmandu. There are more direct routes, but I really
like Thai Airways and part of that is that they are so gracious. One
of the flight attendants actually works in a Thai restaurant when she
stays in London, a friend of hers is the owner. With any luck, we'll
have a few days to spend on a beach in Thailand before we come back.

So we arrive in Kathmandu, it's the same scene at the airport where
you have to line up for a visa. Unfortunately, there were two other
flights that landed just in front of us so it was well over an hour
just to pay our $100 and have a stamp put in our passports. There has
to be a better way. The last time I was here was in 2005, it doesn't
look any different despite the four years and the fact that it is now
a republic. The palace I'm told, is now a museum but there still
seems to be armed guards around the walls. It seems the traffic is
worse and use of horns is some form of continuous communication, even
in grid lock because the horns will definitely make the guy stuck in
the mud move faster. The hotel is basic and the rooms are tiny, the
original plan was for two to a room but that would only have worked if
we didn't have any bags. It's just beside Tamel, the older part of
Kathmandu with all the merchants so it is well placed. As we're
heading into a life of high-mountain lodges and tents, it makes for a
good transition from our nice fluffy bed in London. I like it because
there's a nice little black mutt for a resident dog, he was pretty
happy that I stopped to talk to him.

Thamel is an incredible area, you can buy anything you would need for
an expedition here. Tchouky made the comment that you could show up
naked and find everything you need. Half the fun is bargaining,
although I've seen some people get carried away. We actually walked
out of the tea shop for that last Euro on our 200 tea bags, 7 Eur was
clearly a rip off but 6 Eur was somehow just right. The thing that I
did not remember about Thamel is the smell…

So tomorrow we are off, we should be in Samogaon by midday, then we
start the acclimitisation process. This should be really interesting
as we'll be heading right up to the Tibet/Nepal border before we come
back down and go to base camp. I did get word today that there is a
Canadian expedition on the mountain, well they've already left
Kathmandu, this could be interesting as I'm sure they are wanting to
be the first Canadians as well…