Reality is here

After what seems like an age in preparation and talks about the trip i am finally on my way, I was up at 4am and after a quick cup of tea and some cereal i dropped the car off and joined the queue to board my Jet Blue flight to New York, Once i settled in the captain had a chat and it went something like this blah blah blah blah blah blah choppy blah blah, Yep i am not the best flier and i hate it when they say you may have a bumpy, choppy or turbulent flight before you have even taken off, As it turned out the flight was pretty good, Landing in NY i had less than an hour to get my connecting flight to Qatar, I asked what terminal and gate i needed to be at and was told 6, 4, 7 or 8, After some discussion they settled on 8, I had a long walk to the sky train and noticed it said that Qatar had evening flights from 8 and daytime flights from 7, I got off at 7 and then had to go back through checking in and security, I got to my gate with minutes to spare
I boarded the Qatar plane and wow what a difference, Firstly it seemed huge and was close to brand new, Even in cattle class there was leg room, The food was very good and you each had a large screen with USB and power outlets, I had 2 great guys next to me and we chatted most of the 13 hours it took to get there, We landed an hour early leaving me with 7 hours hanging around before my next flight, Qatar airport is like many large city airports, The usual shops but with a very low head count unlike Heathrow for example, Making it a relaxed if not expensive affair,
I am writing this drinking my 3rd $8 latte and somewhat bored, The total journey is around 29 hours and its now 2.15am my time but only 9.15am here, I have arranged to be picked up in Kathmandu by one of the guys from Ian Taylor Trekking who is the tour operator, I will finish this when i am in Kathmandu, Laters

The flight from Qatar to Kathmandu was much shorter than i thought at about 4 hours, I slept most of the way, 30 hours traveling will do that to you, I was met by 2 guides that work for Ian Taylor trekking and we went through the hustle and bustle of the city where they dropped me off at the Apsara boutique hotel, I settled in ans hit the sack
Up and out fairly early, I had some breakfast and met with Kaye who runs the office here for Ian, She introduced me to Mia, Mia was on the same trek as i am doing but suffered the effects of altitude sickness and was helicoptered off the mountain where she spent 2 days in hospital and now cannot fly for a few days until she goes home, You just do not know how your body will deal with the altitude and we are all different, It was very unfortunate as she was close to the end

I ended up spending the whole day with Kaye and Mia who showed me the city and some of the main places to go like Durbar square which was hit hard by the earthquake, We finished the day in a great restaurant with fantastic food and local beer, Kathmandu has grown on me in the last few hours i have to say

As the weather was not great for photography i.e pure white sky i decided to just take some street shots with my D800e and 24-70

Click on images to make bigger


Mia, Helicoptered off the mountain and now doing well

 Rickshaw

 Kaye (left) and Mia getting some retail theropy

 Stoupa

 Feral pigeon

 Helping themselves to rock salt

 Spaghetti junction

 Busy streets

 Prayer wheels

 At the clay pot market

 Durbar Square

 Sadhu

 Beautiful details and woodwork

 From a rooftop cafe

 Melting gold for ear rings

 Hand carving the ear rings

 Mia with school girl

Off to the Monkey temple tomorrow

Dave