Dear friends

Once again, I am back to Kathmandu. A place filled with travallers from all over the world.
The moment I stepped into the airport, memories of my past visits flashed in.

The weather here for the past two days are similiar to Singapore’s – warm and rainy, but minus the humidity, so not too bad. We had to either carry an umbrella or put on our sponsored Marmot goretex shell when moving around Thamel.

Traffic here is terrible, horns can be heard everywhere and anytime. The drivers here do not practice any rules. I have witnessed a scene where 5 small taxis (size of a mini-copper), each heading on one another, trying to drive through a narrow cross junction. No one was willing to give way, and later, another few motorbikes added to the jam. Thank goodness I was able to squeeze in-between gaps to move on. Traffic situation was much bettter in the winter, I believe so :p

We are staying in Hotel Tibet, about 3km away from Thamel. To go to Thamel, we have to take a taxi. Walking is another alternative, but but … 🙂 The taxi fare is 50 ruppees one way. Taxi drivers will first quote at 100rupees and it is your wits and generousity that make that final deal.

We are moving away from Kathmandu today. Base on our planned schedule, we are suppose to leave on the 19th, anyhow, the necessary stuff already settled, so we decided to leave Kathmandu as soon as we can. We have stayed in Kathmandu for 2days. I did not apply for an entry visa, my other teammates did – paid S$65 for that when in Singapore. Nepal now offers 3days free entry to most nationalities, so I save on that 🙂

I am feeling good, just that I needed more sleep to compensate those lost hours for the last 2 weeks. I think I complaint to some of you that I had chest tightness, or even Asthma. I no longer feel that way anymore. Eating form major part of my activities here in Kathmandu, feel like I am putting on weight!

My team celebrated Peh Gee’s and my birthday last evening. We had dinner at Le Bistrol, the beer garden cafe next to Kathmandu Guesthouse and Barnes bookshop (if you can recall :)). We also met up with our Mera trip’s (Swet’s trip) guide, Lobsang! We had dinner together.

We will go to Zhangmu (Tibet, China) and rest there for a day or maybe two and will proceed to Nyalam thereafter. We will stock up more of our basecamp food from Zhangmu. Our last civilisation will be at Tingri, and will start our acclimatization walk then. Oh, we had started our Diamox feast …Dr Mok wants us to do that. We are drinking lots of water and visiting the loo very often!

Alright, I got to go. I’ll try to write again.

Thanks for all your support and well wishes.

Cheers,
Joanne
Hotel Tibet
Kathmandu, 5:50am
18 Aug 2007