Well, after a long hard slog I've finally made it down to a place where I can sit without having to gasp for extra oxygen or wear 2 T-shirts and a fleece in my sleeping bag. At the moment I'm in Delhi in a nice warm cyber cafe.......but I almost wasn't.

After Varanasi I caught a train, taxi and bus. 2 days, 1 border crossing and a sore arse later I finally arrived in Kathmandu - Nepal. And I instantly feel in love with the place. I'd been travelling since Ghorakpur with Danny, a Liverpudlian who's living in Goa but had to come to Kathmandu to try and extend his Indian visa. We had 2 days until he had to leave and I was scheduled to meet the Intrepid group. Kathmandu would be a great place to chillout for a few days, with loads of bars blurring out live music every night shops everywhere you look, especially book shops, photography equipment shops, and internet cafes, and one of the best things about Kathmandu is that's it nice and cool. Dad would of loved it here. The small streets are crammed equally with Nepalese and trekking westerners all buying the usual cold weather clothing they'll need but at rock bottom prices from what they are in the UK.

I say my goodbyes to Danny and meet the group on day 1 of the trip. It's a real mixed bag this time, I'm one of the youngest as opposed to one of the oldest like with the India trip. We've got a couple of Kiwi's, a few Aussies and Canadians and even a Columbian couple. I'm one of two Brits.

The next day we fly from Kathmandu to Lukla, flying through the mountains to get to the small town which sits at 2800m. The airstip which is not much longer than my driveway back home is at a 30 degree angle as the whole place is on the side of a mountain, so landing is quite an event itself. We have a quick breakfast in Lukla and then waste no time in starting the trek. Although the usual temperature during the day is around 10-15 degrees, we start to warm up pretty fast while walking. By midday we're all down to shorts and T-Shirt.

Our accomodation for the nights are Teahouses, found dotted along the trail leading to Everest. Our first stop is Phakding, a small 3 Teahouse community. One thing you've got to understand about all the Teahouses is that all the heating they have is in the Dining Area and none in the rooms. The rooms themselves are all very basic with a couple of beds and a window if your lucky. I'm sharing with Patrick, a Brit who works for the Immigration office in London. Before I can say anything he tell me 'I throw them out if they've been bad b*****s'. I've been reading spy thrillers since India and according to Fredrick Forsyth all MI5 and MI6 agents come out with the same cover story of Immigration officer and soon the group is throwing the usual james bond jokes around, they start to stick and Patrick gets them for the rest of his holiday.

We wake at 6.30 to a cold room, getting out of your warm sleeping bag when the room is 5 degrees is hard work but the dining area is nice and warm due to the wood burning stove in the centre. After breakfast we set off walking at around 7.30 and it's much the same as the day before, sunny, warm with spectacular views. One of the more impressive mountains is Amadablam, covered in snow and the south face is a sheer drop 700ft down from the top. After a couple of hours walking the trail starts to get very steep, but every one in the group takes there time and goes at there own pace. By lunch time we've reached our second sleeping palce Namche Bazaar. It sits at 3,440m and is the last place on the trail to buy any cold weather gear........including the gloves I should of bought!!!

As the days go on, the air gets thinner and temperatures colder. The things I weren't expecting was that the accomodation gets more and more basic. Stone building suddenly turn into Plywood sheet huts and sheds. Patrick nicknamed one of the teahouses 'The Gulag' as it looked like a Syberian prison and the few lights were powered by a single car battery, and as the only transport for supplies is by sherpa, the food and anything else you can buy gets more expensive.

By the time we reach Ghorakshep which is only half a days walk to Everest Base Camp. The T-shirt I was wearing has turned to a long sleeve thermal (Thanks for that Nushka) 2 T-shirts, a fleece and my waterproof to try and keep off the wind chill. Don't think I've ever felt cold like it. Even fully clothed in your sleeping bag, you don't feel that warm. But then again, I'd of been very disappointed if it wasn't really cold. And just looking outside the windows at the numerous mountains and the valleys below makes you realise just what your here for and what your achieving.

The altitude hadn't effected me till we got to Ghorakshep, being out of breath just getting into your sleeping bag is one thing but the bad headaches I got were annoying.

The trek to base camp was fantastic, walking along side the Khumbu Glacier with it's pinnacles of ice and rocks balanced on top of some ice colums. Some in the group thought that the trek back to Ghorakshep was hard, but it was nothing compared to the next days walk to Kalapathar. A steep hill over looking Gorakshep that gives the best views of Everest. We start at 4.30am and some of the group had been struggling with altitude sickness so they stay behind.

Picture the scene - it's early morning, pitch black, -15oC and were walking to climb a hill. But everybody's going to make it, there all wearing layer upon layer of winter clothing, wooly hats and thick gloves.....all except one.....some daft english guy who thought down in warmish Namche Bazaar that they didn't need thick gloves and couldn't imagine it getting that cold. Hindsight is a wonderful thing!! How I thought that I didn't need warm gloves at 5,540m high in the Himalaya's in November - I have no idea, but there I was climbing Kalapathar with no wooly hat and only thin cotton gloves. The climb itself was really hard going. Not being able to feel my hands was bad enough but 100 yards from the top was a nightmare, one of those kind of nightmares were you can see where you want to get too, but no matter how fast you run it always seems to look further away. It took me 20 minutes to get up the last 70ft. But when you get there you feel like you've actually achieved something and the old saying that 'if it's not hard it's not worth doing' sprung to mind. The sun hadn't even come up yet, so it was still bitterly cold but this was the highest we'd go on the trek - 5545m high. And the views are unforgettable!!!! A great spot to take some photographs which was a major struggle as I couldn't feel my hands.

After Kalapathar it's was time to start heading back down to Lukla. Soon the headaches and sickness wore off, the coldness started to give way to warmth and the walking got easier. Everyone was in a great mood on the way down and looking forward to the flight back to Kathmandu from Lukla. Only problem was once we got to Lukla the weather took a turn for the worse and all flights were cancelled. We were stuck there for 3 days. Most of the group were supposed to fly home the next day or the day after and this caused REAL problems!!

People were cancelling flights and trying to find out when they could get down to Kathmandu but until the weather got better no-one was going anywhere. I had a flight booked as part of my RTW ticket from Delhi to Hanoi on the 10th and I had to cancel a flight from Kathmandu to Delhi. The mood soon got very sour, especially when Kamal the group leader got a call from his boss at Himalayan Encounters saying they would try and get a transport helicopter to us, what he forgot to mention was the $300 price tag we all had to pay. One minute our hopes are high and then they're dashed. People were starting to get a bit nasty. Not only that but there were 3 more treks coming in behind us on the next day and the days after that. Lukla started to fill up with trekkers who couldn't go anywhere and all accomodation was taken.

Thankfully after 3 days the fog and low cloud cleared to bright blue skies and we got a plane to Kathmandu. Finding a flight to Delhi was a major headache but thankfully someone cancelled there seat and I jumped in. It cost $240 for it but at least I got to Delhi. And in Business class too.

This trek was definately worth it not because it's a nice easy strole but because it's really quite hard. With a combination of cold weather and high altitudes you soon start to realise that it's no walk in the park but the views were out of this world. I just hope vietnam can deliver the same level of excitement that Nepal has.

Come on Hanoi!!! Bring it on!!!!!