its saturday 30th september, and i have just arrived in Kathmandu! never thought i would write from Nepal, its always been one of these place that you hear about but never thing you would ever go there.... but here i am! i have to say that i have had such an interesting frustrated flight from Manilla to bangkok and then Kathmandu! on top of a flight delay, power cut at Manilla airport meant that checking was over 2 hours long, with lots of time in full drakness... lol and a very hot and humid atmosphere as there was no AC - i was sweating like a pig! then i realise that with the new airport opening at Bangkok, my hotel reservation had been done at the old airport and not the new one - depsite checking with the airline 2 days before, so furstrated, i landed at the new Bangkok airport which is superb - but more delay in getting my luggages and picking up a taxi to my new hotel reservation that didnt read english - didnt help! it took him 40 min to find an hotel 5 min away from airport... but i had to laugh, the situation had become so comical! LOL and he was trying his best!

anyway, i made my way the next morning, after 4 hours sleep at the hotel, to the airport again and flew to Kathmandu.

Kathmandu is a very interesting place where Hindu buddism and Tibetan buddhism meet. People are very welcoming and its strange that i felt more secure walking at night in Kathmandu than during my whole stay in the Philippines. you can wonder through the streets and feel at ease...

i was lucky that the weekend i arrived, epalese people indulge in their biggest festival of the year, Dashain! it is the longest and most auspicious festival and commemorate a great victory of the gods over the wicked demons. Every home is cleansed and decorated, painted as an invitation to mother goddess - thousands of sheep, goats, ducks and water buffalo are prepared for the great slaughter - offering are made in abondance to temple and gods - its an amazing sight! and the photos are there to show you what it was like.

i also found out that Nepal has a real living goddess called the Kumari Devi. from time immemorial the practice of worshipping an ordinary pre-pubescent girl as a source of supreme power has been an integral part of Buddhism and Hinduism. this girl is worshipped on all the religious occasions. Selected in a highly elaborate ritual based on test based on 32 attributes of perfection, including the colour of her eyes, shape of her teeth and sound of her voice, the 4 to 7 year old poor girls are made to confront a goddess in the darkened room. sight of Buffalo heads scattered around, demons like masked dancers, terrifying noises scare some of these innocent girls - the real goddess is unlikely to be frightened, so the one who is calm and collected throughout the tests is the only girl who is entitled to site on the pedestal for worship. she will stay goddess until her first menstruation, but if she turns out to be unlucky, even a minor scratch on her body that bleeds can make her invalid for worship - she then changes back to the status of normal mortal and the serach of a new Kumari begins - during her life as Kumari, she is also taken away from her family and live in isolation of the outside world!

On sunday 1st october, i finally met with the rest of the group from Exodus during a meeting where we got told what to expect over the next 5 weeks. our guides Andy and Paul also explained to us the do's and dont's that will rule this trip - while Andy appeared to be an arse, he would turn out to be a great guy over the next few weeks. while i suddenly realised that the trip wasnt going to be as i expected, it was too late to turn back and thought that the this overland journey would certainly be a different experience - a lot more basic than what i was expecting...LOL

we got advised to stock up on warm layers as the crossing of the tibetan plateau will prove to be very cold - so the next day we all went shopping!

finally on Tuesday 3rd october we were ready to go!