Posts From Nepal

Today we are off to Katmandu for 3 nights. Pickup at 8:00 by our tour bus and an 11:00am flight from Delhi airport. We did not really take much notice of the airport on our arrival. I guess we were too sleepy and got out of the place too fast to take much in. But it is a very large and modern airport. We soon discovered that the Indian security services have added their own touches to those familiar airport checkin, immigration and security screening process. Our boarding passes were checked at least 6 times between checkin and the end of security screening, and at the security screening posts a young uniformed official dutifully recorded the details from the boarding pass of every passenger into a hand written ledger (where of course the information is totally useless). After security we were confronted by a massive array of duty free shops.

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We have had two packed days in Katmandu, packed with Pagodas, Stupas, narrow streets, people and processions and a couple of "burials" - but we will get to that. At the end of our whirlwind visit the impression I will take away is that of a village that has grown into a city way too fast. With a population of around 4 million the roads and other infrastructure seem totally inadequate. But never the less the place is fascinating. Many of the historic and religious buildings are situated in "squares" that are still part of the public life of the city. So for example while standing looking at a particularly impressive Pagoda one can be passed by a tractor pulling vegetables.

We were up early this morning and underway by 5:30am in order to take a scenic flight over (or really beside) the Himalayas. A quick bus ride brought us to a crowded car park and then a walk through an active building site and we arrived at the Katmandu Domestic Airport - really nothing more than a large waiting room that would eventually be packed with people waiting for planes. In the room there were people like us waiting for a scenic flight, trekkers with lots of gear waiting to fly to the starting point for their trek and piles and piles of supplies going to mountain villages.