Well, our quest to find Kathmandu's best food continues unabated. We now have two favourite restaurants, where the average price of a meal is around 250 rupees, less than two pounds - for us both... But it's not all eating here. Yesterday, we had the most AMAZING experience. We took an early morning 'mountain flight' with Buddha Air from Kathmandu out to the Himalayas on a round trip scenic flight, and were trated to absolutely spectacualr views of the mountain range, including, of course, Mount Everest. It was just fantastic, a definite highlight in all my travels - the mounains appeared so clearly from the plane windows - everyone has a window seat on this plane, there are only 18 passengers and three crew, and we were all invited up to the cockpit to see the pilots' view - this is surely the best job in the world ? The air stewardess walked up ad down the aisle, pointing out the different mountains - we could see, along with Mount Everest, Kanchenjunga and another, the 5th and 6th highest mountains respectively. They seemed so clear and serene - it was just such a wonerful experience, one I certainly cannot do justice to by trying to describe it - I only hope that my photos will give some idea of how amazing it was. We actually got an email the other day relating to fuel problems that are being experienced here. Am not quite sure exactly what the story is, as to why there have been problems (although I heard today of someone in the Kathmandu area queuing for THIRTEEN hours to get petrol yesterday). However, the email we received advised us that the organisers, The Adventurists, have managed to secure enough fuel from Army reserves for each rickshaw to travel around 200km. While this is great from a completely selfish point of view (yay - we can set off on this made, crazy adventure), I am a little concerned that army reserves (if that is indeed where our fuel is coming from) could be put to slightly better use.... If you have been watching the news, you may have heard the news that Nepal became a republic - yesterday!! Cannot believe I am actually here at such a historic moment in a country's history - it has been a monarchy for the last 270 or so years. We spent some time hanging out in Durbar Square but just saw local celebrations rather than anything major. The mood seems to be really optimistic, though, of course, not everyone is happy with this turn of events and apparently there have been a few explosions, but not in any of the touristy areas. Most of the kids we spoke to were just pleased to have four days off school! Today we went to Bhaktapur, which is SO much more chilled than Kathmandu. The Durbar Square is off limits to cars so it is a much more peaceful place - and our entry fee money goes on restoring and perserving the buildings around the Square. We took a local bus there, and thought we were returning by the same, but actually the bus that started to make ourselves comfortable on was actually a company minibus. It was slightly embarrassing getting off, but, despite there being no empty seats on the bus, we were invited to join the group for the journey back to the city. It was very much an international bus, all the passengers worked for a worldwide conservation charity and were in Kathmandu for a meeting, from all different parts of the world. I think they all thought were were completely crazy when we wold them the purpose of our trip. Have to say, am now thoroughly used to that reaction! Getting information packs about the rickshaws tomorrow - where to meet up on Saturday - when we will get to see our (hopefully) fully pimped our dream machines. Both of us are very excited about that! And possibly also info about where we will be setting off from on Sunday, and possibly even details about Saturday night's send off party. Think everyone who is not already here will arrive tomorrow. Actually haven't seen many other folk - except one team, who will for now remain nameless, who were wandering round in their team t-shirts (attention seeking, surely?) who did not seem in the least bit interested in striking up conversation with a fellow team/competitor... Will see if they manage to be any more friendly on Saturday...