After leaving Sapa, Vietnam we caught an overnight train to Hanoi then a flight to Bangkok on 17th June. It was a bit of a fraught day to be honest as the train got in to Hanoi at the ungodly hour of 5.30am. We then we had to kick our heels a bit for a few hours before we went to the airport which wasn't helped by Jo not feeling too great being back in the heat. It was sweltering, even at that time in the morning, made worse with more dealings with the pain in the neck locals. We eventually got to the airport and flew to Bangkok where the airport was chaos and it took us two hours to get through the formalities plus our hotel pick up wasn't there. It was then more queing for a taxi to get to our airport hotel which wasn't the one we thought we'd booked. Our driver was a right moody so and so, having said that that he wasn't as moody as we were! It is days like this that make you wish you were at home. The next day we flew into Kathmandu from Bangkok which went smoothly enough as was our transfer to the hotel so we started to feel a little better and look forward to our pre-arranged trip with GAP travel. This involves a couple of days here then a flight up to Lhasa, the Tibetan capital. We are due to spend around 10 days in Tibet which will include a visit to the Himalayas and Mount Everest. Our first impressions of Kathmandu were positive with it's narrow streets and interesting streetlife. The people here seem a little less in your face than those in south-east Asia although thats not exactly difficult! It's a surprisingly large city with a population of 2.5 million and has a similar feel to an Indian City, if fortunately not quite as hot as we're 1100 meters high. On our only full day here we went on a tour to a couple of the local temples, the Monkey temples (Buddhist) and the holy area of Padt (Hindu). The latter was particularly impressive providing you can stand the sight of bodies being openly cremated on the ghats by the stream! We stayed in the tourist area of Thamel which has surprisingly good restaurants and is certainly full of character. You certainly feel for the locals as tourism is their lifeblood and most stopped coming after the April troubles and are only just starting to drift back. We're enjoying being part of a tour group again as it's a readt made bunch of people to meet and socialise with. We can also look forward to all travel and hotel arrangements being made for us which saves you the hassle of doing it yourself and hassle is the last thing we need after Vietnam! We left on the 20th by plane to Lhasa, Tibet.