Namaste!

Friday 30th July
Arrived safely
Firstly my apologies for the delay in posting – the internet connection has not been the best and there is a power cut of at least two hours every evening!
Well it feels like a very long 24 hours as aeroplanes don’t make the most comfortable of beds. There were the most amazing views, though, from the air as we flew over the western side of the Himalayas. We passed over the mountainous regions of places heard of in the news so often these days in Afghanistan – Kandahar, Herat and Helmand. The views over the mountains were lovely, barefaced and cut by the odd river showing. The peaks themselves were so high that snow could be seen atop them.
We had a very short stop-over in Delhi, rushing through the next check-in and queuing for an hour for my connecting flight. An interesting situation in the airport, as I was redirected from my line entering the scanning machine into another queue which apparently all ladies had to go through. After entering the scanner you have to go into a separate cubicle with curtain for the female officer to check you are not carrying anything you shouldn’t. I can only guess that this is done to preserve the sensibilities of ladies needing to maintain their full body cover without being revealed to men!
The flight to Kathmandu was pretty uneventful but it was lovely to be met by Ram. He is just how you would imagine a native of Nepal to be, welcoming and friendly and a very good guide to the city.

Our hotel we are staying in for two nights is very basic – I’m not sure it would even get a star rating in the UK! However, the family that run it are very good at making you feel at ease and nothing is too much bother. The view from my window is just a riot of mixed up jumbled buildings with the fabulous mountains as a backdrop. Kathmandu appears to be settled inside a ring of mountains as everywhere you look there is a peak stretching up in your background scenery.

There have been some interesting introductions to the Nepalese cultural differences, the food generally is quite spicy and they seem to live on rice and dahl, a lentil. The tea is very different here as the milk and tea are boiled up together rather than milk going fresh into the cup, probably due to milk being unpasteurised. A fast and effective way of making the milk safe. It is actually not unpleasant to drink it without milk as it is a more subtle black tea that is used rather than the stronger Darjeeling type we favour in Britain that tends to be quite bitter without milk.