Hi everyone,

Our adventure in Nepal started in the capital city, Kathmandu. And what a start....we arrived into the airport and queued for our Nepal visa. While in the queue we learned that we could only pay for our visas in cash (every currency was accepted except Nepalese rupees bizarrely enough!). I made a dash for a cash machine which meant having to go through security and outside the airport. It was 10 o'clock at night and the 24 hour cash machine was closed! Luckily the bank was open and they gave me cash (rupees only of course!). While I was busy banging down bank doors trying to get money, Linda was waiting at the front door of the airport being harassed by over eager taxi drivers and to top it off there was a power cut putting the airport in complete darkness. Linda was sure it was all a plot by the people nearby to rob her blind! Fortunately the electricity returned quickly and we went back to the visa office to find that the currency exchange office was closed! We had no option but to open our bags and scramble around looking for any bit of foreign currency we had. We managed to scrape enough to get a 15 day visa for both of us. One paid for in US dollars, the other in euros! So as you can imagine our first hour in Nepal was slightly stressful but things got much better from there on in.

We were only in our guesthouse 5 minutes and we were all booked up to do a 5 day trek in the Himalayas! So this gave us lots of time to explore the busy narrow streets of the old city area of Kathmandu where we were based. The Nepalese people were really friendly and were always chatty and helpful especially when we took a wrong turn on our way to somewhere. Nepal is probably the world's most popular trekking area ever since or even before Everest's peak was reached in 1953 so they are well used to tourists. There were however a couple of culture shocks! The traffic in the tiny streets of Kathmandu was crazy, constant beeping of horns, absolutely no traffic lights, everyone thinking they had the right of way and no rules whatsoever! Taking a ride in a rickshaw or a taxi was an adventure in itself. Daal Bhat was the other new discovery; the Nepalese people eat this for breakfast, dinner and tea, literally nothing else! This is rice, with lentils in a spicy sauce, curried veg, and curried chutney. Traditionally these are all mixed by hand and eaten by your right hand. We didn't immerse ourselves that far into the culture though, and stuck to the knives and forks!

One of the constant themes that kept coming up in conversation with local people was government corruption. Nepal has only recently changed from Monarchy to Democracy. In the most recent election, the Maoist party (communist) got into power by promising the people everything but of course nothing has changed so there is huge frustration among the general population. The roads are completely neglected and many of them are not surfaced. For example we travelled 200Km to get to our trekking starting point and it took us 7 hrs by bus as you can rarely drive over 40km/hr. The power supply is another big problem. It turned out that the power cut in the airport wasn't an exception. Every day for at least 6 hours the whole country goes without electricity. This could be day or night so we got well used to eating dinner by candle-light and never had our torches too far away.

Nepal is predominantly Hindu, although there is also a large Buddhist community due to the fact that the Buddha was born in Nepal. Religion is instilled in the everyday lives of people and it was fascinating to learn more about the traditions of each of these religions. One of the most admirable things about the Nepalese people is their ability to practice both Hinduism and Buddhism side by side in a completely peaceful way. They share so many things, for example Hindus can worship in Buddhist temples and vice versa. In some areas you can see hundreds of Buddhist prayer flags and find a Hindu shrine just underneath. We spent most of our time visiting various temples from both religions in Kathmandu, and the highlight was definitely Pashupatinath, just outside the city. This is Nepal's holiest Hindu site (it is their equivalent of Mecca or the Vatican). All Hindus try to visit this temple at least once in their lifetime and wash in the Bagmati river that runs alongside it. This river eventually flows into the Ganges in India. Nepalese people would argue that this site is as important as Varanasi in India, if not more important. I think Hindus in India would disagree with that though! It was an overwhelming place, even for tourists, as cremations take place here 24 hours a day so we watched the men prepare the bodies, wood and straw for burning. Both Hindus and Buddhists use these ghats (concrete platforms beside the river) for cremation.The burning of the bodies lasts for about 5 hours and eventually their ashes are thrown into the river. It was amazing how public everything was. We were among hundreds of people sitting around watching the cremations as ashes blew in the wind around us.It was a haunting experience and something we will never forget.

Part 2 of Nepal will follow soon!