DAY #2 - KATHMANDU

Bad start to the trip when Gulf Air asked for 12g of exess baggage payment, £240!! A bit of haggling later plus removing various bits and pices from my bag got it down to £60. Still not what i wanted and bodes badly for the flight up to Tibet not to mention the return trip home. Talking to people here it seems to depend on which check in person you get and its all a bit of a lotery. However, after my 2 hour wait at Bahrain I was delighted to discover that for no aparent reason I had been upgraded to 1st class, seat 1A. Surprising as there were plenty of seats in the rest of the plane and nobody else up front with me at all. Perhaps they felt guilty at charging me excess for my bike. Anyway, had a couple of hours sleep on the flat bed then woke up for lunch which was delicious and waited on by two hostesses exclusively for me. Not a bad way to arrive in Kathmandu.




The airport is as mad as you might expect but got my bags and waded through the crowds to our mini bus, and was told I had to wait for five more of our group. While I was waiting badgered by locals who said they helped in putting my bags in the bus... told them I had no change, but they insisted and eventually were happy to take a pound coin. I got off lightly, two of the others were persuaded to hand over £20 each!


Today went on an organised tour in a mini-bus - just the sort of thing I dread and was tempted to do a runner, however, really glad I didn't as we had a brillliant visit to the Holiest Hindu temple in the world (apparently) followed by a less impressive but nevertheless well worth seeing Budhist temple.

Was absolutely stopped in my tracks as I approached the temple when I realised the small crowds of people on the other side of the river were actually creamating their relatives, and that there were more bodies wrapped in orange robes lying in a row waiting for their turn.

What seems to happen is that the relatives first wash the body in the river then wait their turn for a funeral pyre to become available. Then they set fire to the body, starting at the mouth. Ideally the eldest son should do this which is why, we were told, Hindis really want to have sons.


After that we headed off in the interests of religous balance to see a Bhudist temple... impressive in its own way, we wandered around it the correct (clockwise) way spinning prayer wheels (the Bhudist version of rosary beads), all the time under the gaze of the all seeing eyes...

Tomorrow off on a four day cycle tour up into the foothills to try and get a bit of aclimatisation before heading up to Lhasa on Saturday. We should have been going on Wednesday but Chinese authorities insisting on five rather than three days to issue the necessary paperwork.