11.01.10 - 5.15pm (11.35am UK)

Well, we’ve arrived! What a surreal journey that was… I think the only thing missing from the outbound flight was a line of elephants coming down the aisle! There were 2 intercom requests for medical assistance from ‘any doctors on board’ during the flight from Heathrow to Delhi plus a woman who screamed & wailed through most of the night - we were convinced she was in labour, but apparently not. She just doesn’t travel well…!

I won the competition for having the heaviest suitcase at 28kgs, I also won the heaviest (& largest) hand luggage. Looking at the various bags as we collected them off the conveyor belt at Kathmandu, I think it’s fair to say that I have also won the competition for being the most over packed! Nevermind.

Temperature here in Kathmandu is a balmy 20c, so it’s very pleasant. However, the air quality is pretty poor & as you look to the mountains that surround the town on all sides, there’s a yukky smog all around. Trying to take a photo of the sunset was a bit of a wet squib - hopefully it’ll be better once we leave the town.

The journey from Kathmandu Airport to The Royal Singi Hotel was an experience. Sooo many people, sooo many shacks, sooo many little shops… & the streams of spaghetti like power cables & telephone cables stretching from building to building - it’s amazing that anything works! In fact I’m told it doesn’t - they have regular power failures & the insides of all the ‘shops’ are in darkness. I wonder why?!

The plan for the rest of today is eat at 6.30pm (the Exodus guide is going to take us to somewhere ‘safe’ in Thamel, 10 minutes from the hotel). Then I think we’ll just come back to the hotel for a quick ‘snifter’ before crashing out. I don’t know about everyone else, but I’ve got serious eye sting & my initial hopes of us all doing a children’s song from the church repertoire as a sort of ice breaker for new faces among us are fading fast! I guess I’ll just have to save that for Base Camp…

Tomorrow is an early start for breakfast before meeting for our full briefing at 9am. The rest of the day, from what I can gather, is ’free’ - but I’ll get another post up then with more details.

If you could spare a prayer for my back please I’d be grateful. I managed to put my back out before we left - probably the weight of the suitcase that did it! The journey hasn’t helped & I’m dosed up on Nurofen, but hopefully it’ll come round before we head off in earnest.

Tim, for SLS, signing off. GB.