nepal - first impressions..!.

SO FAR SO GOOD!!!!!! (((Apart from the fact that this time it's Ole's turn with the nasty indian bacterias - he is currently in bed sleeping, visiting the toilet and freaking out.. Definately not the first thing you're interested in after just arriving in a new country. Our bodies, I suppose, are so low on the immune system, that only one little shitty bacteria will fuck up everything. But as I said, Varanasi was dirty and dirty means.... indian belly....He has seen a nice Australian doctor, and he gave him some pills - so hopefully this will be over in no time... Fingers crossed!!)))

Anyhow - from the little we have seen since yesterday, Kathmandu is a fun city with cool people and a million miles from India. We landed after a 45 min flight from Varanasi (no delays!!) yesterday morning, and we were picked up by two nice old men from our guesthouse. The guys were really friendly, and compared to India - the airport was peanuts!. The first thing we really appreciated when stepping out of the plain was the crisp, clean air and the mountains surrounding the city.. It's around 26 degrees at the highest, and at night when the sun sets it gets really cold - around 10... But it feels definately cold after 38 degrees in Varanasi!!. So, I have dug out the wollen underwear and the fleece sweater from my pack, along with the one pair of trousers I brought....It feels wierd to cruise in pants and shoes again, and actually experiencing goozebums.. But the feeling is also very near since we are cold blooded norwegians, not to forget.. Feels like home I suppose!!

When cruising through the streets from the airport, we were surprised to see how developed everything was - we had imagined a much more primitive city. There were some fancy cars and the girls are wearing jeans and tight tops - a huge contrast to the sari's and salwar suits of the women in India. Ole was pleased to see not only this, but also several SONY shops around town with more or less (bit of an overstatement perhaps) the latest camera equipment... Sadly enough, our camera didn't survive the heat in India, so it is not co-operating very well.. So we might have to buy a new one, since we were planning on filming like there was no tomorrow at the trek later on..
We got to our guesthouse of choice safely after a short ride through town. The guesthouse is a six storey house (Gabrielle and Rowan - we have picked the same one as you! I just read your mail now Gabby, and we are also in Pilgrims, only second floor...), with great views over the Kathmandu valley from the rooftop. It has a cosy restaurant in the garden, and we were pleased to see that they had proper yoghurt on the menu!!. It is set in a area called Patanjol, north of the famous (and busy) Thamel district. I managed to do a fair bit of bargaining also, a room that was originally 650 rupee, was after a negotiation down on 400. Thats like 36 norwegian kroners, so not a lot at all!. After dumping our bags, we set out for a stroll in the streets, and we live very central to the action. The streets are all narrow and it's like a labyrinth of alleys, so I definately have a difficult time of seperating the one from the other, let alone find my way back to the guesthouse. It's packed with shopping opportunities, selling shitloads of trekking gear ofcourse. We checked out some jackets and pants that we need, but the quality is shithouse - so we want to cruise to another area called Durbar Square (business/shopping area) to compare price and quality. Anyhow, its fun to window shop and see all the restaurants, bars and music shops here.

Today is festival of Holi (festival of colors), a hindu festival celebrating the beginning of summer and the good taking over from the evil. All the nepalese people and the tourists are out in the streets and alleyways equipped with water balloons and plastic bottles full of water mixed with bright colors of mostly red, but also green, yellow and blue. It's more or less like a war out there, people splash the colors all over eachother - and they are covered from head to toe in water and red liquids... It's described in the papers as a festival originally celebrating the friendship and togetherness between all people, but lately it's going mad and more agressive. Hmmmmm. I already got splashed once, and the colors apparently sticks to your skin and clothes forever, causing a rash on your skin also... So with my already dry and ruined skin, I mostly stand like a old fart in the corners watching the madness... We'll see how the day develops though!!!

The new plan now is for Ole to recover as fast as possible, and then move on to Pokhara - the second largest city in Nepal, about seven hours by bus from here. There has been 3 bus accidents over the last few days, and many people killed - so we are seriously considering the plain... We'll see.. In Pakhora, we will find a chilled out guesthouse by the river Phewa Tal, and linger there for a few days. From Pakhora, we will go trekking - and after some advice and research it looks like it's gonna be the Jomsom trek. It's a 9 day walk to the end point of Muktinath, and it goes through all sorts of scenario - including one of the best viewpoints in Himalaya called Poon Hill at 3210 meters. The max elevation on this trek will be 3800 meters... GREAT!!.
After this, we will see how safe it is to enter Chitwan park - as we really want to go - but it is advised to stay out of the border crossing areas including the park by the embassy..... But this is all for later anyway, and first we will check out Kathmandu and the valley around it! It's great to see the mountains and feel the mountain air. For sure!

Stay tuned....