My first day in Kathmandu was interesting. This place is definitely another world. I woke up after 4.5 hours of sleep, happy to to get that, and got up and wandered around the courtyard of the hotel a bit, enjoying the quiet of the morning. The staff here are so courteous it is painful: I know it is part culture and part the fact this is one of the nicer hotels here, but it still feels wierd to have doormen and security guards salute this country boy from Texas.

I had a quick meeting with our team lead and she gave me a basic rundown of the area and answered some immediate questions. I’d be meeting her again later for gear check and gear weigh in. I then headed out and stopped in a shop right outside the hotel. I ended up talking with the store owner quite a bit. He was trying to make a sale, of course, but we did have a good conversation outside of that. I ended up buying an embriodered shirt with a trek map on the back and my name in both English and Nepalese as well as the year on my sleeve. All done by manual sewing machine.

Got some currency exchanged, and then off to one of the market districts, Thamel (silent h). First stop was to get a sim card for the local phone network, which turned out to be a mess. Voice and text worked immediately, but data would just not work on my phone. After about 30 minutes, the shop owner gave up, closed his shop and took me over to the main NCell office. No luck there either. I had already bought the sim card, he could have easily said sorry, it’s your phone, and sent me on my way. Instead, he insisted on taking me to the main office to try and help/please me. I had to rush back to the hotel for my gear check at that point, didn’t really get to do any shopping. Looks like I’m off cell for the trip up. But I have my GPS/Sat communicator. Here’s a few pics of the trip back.

So, it looks like my efforts in managing my gear paid off; after a few suggestions from Bronwen on what I didn’t need, I she weighed my gear at dead on 15kg, the limit. One more box checked.

Back to Thamel to hit a few book stores; Jasmine had requested a book by an Indian poet, Rabindranath Tagore. Done. Had a quick bite at Fire and Ice Pizza, and checked out the Marmot store. There are many name brand company stores here to supply trekkers. There are also vendors selling clearly knock-off gear (The North Face, etc).

 

Later in the day, Taxi drivers start asking for more money, I had to haggle my return trip price. Came back to meet the team and have a group meal. Tomorrow we go on a group tour of Kathmandu.