Well, I made it. I'm in Kathmandu, almost exactly the other side of this round ball we call Earth. Calgary > Tokyo > Bangkok > Kathmandu. A bit grueling at times, but not really that bad. Broke the trip up with a nice little hotel near the Bangkok airport for 5 hours sleep. Kathmandu is an eye opener for sure. I just arrived, and haven't got my head around it yet. It's pretty chaotic to say the least. Getting thru Nepal customs-immigration took almost an hour when two jumbo jets landed, and they only had 3 officials working the desk. Chatted with a nice lady from New Zealand while we waited in line, which helped pass the time. The taxi from the Airport to my hotel took almost an hour. It was only 5 km, but the traffic is something out of this world. I think the traffic here is more frightening than anything I've seen yet in Asia. Even walking is pretty frightening. The motorcycles are all maniacs.
I met with Elsie and Ramesh, my Trekking agents and finalized the final details for the first trek to the Annapurna Sanctuary. Elsie is an interesting lady. She is a retired Bank Manager in her 70's, and runs a Charity here in Nepal. She also co-owns a trekking agency. She lives half the time in High River, and half the time in Nepal. I got a kick out of her email address...... "stilltrekkin@gmail.com". I will meet my Guide on Sunday, and head up into the mountains on Monday. Can't wait.
-Cheers, Dave
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