Kathmandu

32 hours after our start at Sea-Tac Airport, we arrived at the Tibet Guest House in Kathmandu on March, 17th. We were just as excited as we were exhausted. It was morning when we arrived in Nepal so we did everything we could to stay up until a reasonable bed time. To our luck we arrived on Happy Holi, the celebration of color and happiness. The streets were filled with people covered in bright colored pigments, faces of yellow, red, green and purple. It was in their hair and gracing the streets. We didn’t get painted but we did get ambushed by little kids who would pop little plastic baggies full of air on your back to cause a scare. We each got popped several times, being the obvious targets on the streets that day.

Kathmandu is rather quiet post covid with very few foreigners around according to our friends who are familiar with the area. Although, since we first arrived 4 days ago the number of tourists have noticeably increased. Many of the locals are eager for the season to start as the past few years have been hard on business with no help from the government.

In Thamel, the neighborhood where the guest house is, the streets are lined with shops and restaurants. Majority of our time has been spent roaming the chaotic streets bartering and shopping for supplies for the trip. As well as some fun gifts. Matt has been coming to this area for 25 years and has a network of friends in local shops that are a wonderful resource for anything from custom linen, silk, rugs, jewelry and cashmere, as well as extra gear and supplies for the trip.

The food has been really good and incredibly affordable. As a foreigner though, there is limited amount of places that are safe to eat in the area. Maybe on our return we may be able to branch out a little more with less worry having to be ready for a long trek.

Having finished the last task of acquiring 32 bags, 55 fuel canisters, and organizing our food amongst them we are ready to hit the trail. These bags will be portered or flown in with cargo to 8 different locations throughout the trip. We will be flying out at 8 am tomorrow morning by helicopter to Taplejung. From there we will begin our journey to the eastern border of Nepal where we will start the trail across the country. Kathmandu has been good to us, but we are eager to get out of the city and into the mountains.