Never again will I say that London is dirty. It is, of course, by comparison to other places in England, but it is nothing, absolutely nothing when compared to the dust, dirt and rubbish-lined streets of Kathmandu. Today I've had two major issues to contend with: dust and roads. My description won't do them justice but I'll attempt it anyway. I saw a sign on the way back into Kathmandu that just said "Yes!" in English. Let's play some jeopardy. "Will living in ...

21st: Chitwan is, quite literally, a breath of fresh air. Our lodge, Jungle Wildlife Camp, lies just on the river, far enough away from the general tourist mass to be quiet and relatively unspoiled. The rooms are clean, the food is good and the extras are cheap as we're out of the city. But to describe how the day began, we had some delays checking out of Kathmandu Guest House and had to frogmarch it to the "bus station" (line of buses on a busy street...

18th: Well, we're back in Kathmandu after an exciting flight in a six-seater plane from Lukla. I crashed out for most of the day with the hotel room tv on. Now I know almost everything about the history of Ajax and Johan Cruyff. 19th: We're already seeing that spending all our remaining time in Kathmandu will be dull and dangerous for our health! So today we shopped around for a tour to Chitwan national park and got a price of 80USD for 3 days and 2 nights with...

17th: More rain, heavier this time and it started gradually and slowly got worse. Slowly enough for me not to bother putting on my waterproof jacket until it was inevitably too late! So we got to Lukla and I was soaked. It was a lot more like walking through the Lake District than the Himalayas this morning. Only one plane has landed and two have taken off from here so far today. It's still raining, visibility is terrible and people are backed up here waiting in...

Rain! Lots of it. All on the one day I chose to pack my rain jacket away for a lighter day pack. Still, it was warm and the food at Moon Light Lodge in Namche was great as always, including the Snickers Roll, which is Nepal's answer to the battered Mars bar. Our lie in lasted until around 8am, when even my ear plugs gave in to the sound generated in the restaurant room next door. All the rooms in this region are basically separated with plywood, which is about 5...