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.

The flight was uneventful and generally not very scenic. Between the planes small windows and the thick haze in every direction one could barely see the ground at all let alone make out any detail. But just before landing in Katmandu the pilot was required to kill some time with some of those "waiting circles" and we got a couple of sights of the full length of the Himalayas completely free from cloud.

Our accommodation in Katmandu had been changed at the last minute to the Hyatt, as the hotel originally planned was "out of commission" due to the SAARC Heads of State meeting that is taking place in the city. This seems to be causing a deal of chaos for all, as streets are closed, monuments taken over by visiting dignitaries and their security details. The government has instituted a "odds" and "evens" system with vehicle number plates to try and reduce traffic during the conference.

After settling in to our hotel we went for a short walk in the neighborhood to buy some snacks. We discovered that even the checkout clerk at the local supermarket knew the USD/Nepales exchange rate when we wanted to buy our goodies with dollars.