Having finally negotiated Nepal’s dreadful air traffic control, we are picked up, reunited with our bags, which we’d left at the City Centre hotel, and head for Dwarika’s Resort in Dhulikhel, on the outskirts of the city. Every year, AD kindly takes me somewhere for my birthday. This has been the incredibly exotic Rwanda to see the gorillas, or The Ice Hotel within the Artic Circle. One of the highlights was Barmouth for fish and chips! She’s very excite...

It’s 5.50am, I’m wrapped up in my sleeping bag, feeling like a silk worm with riga mortis, having been in bed since 7.30 last night! Annapurna has a gold thread of filigree across its silhouette as the sun rises. Apart from the view, everything else is basic. Our “tea house” is a hotel that has what you need, but, you have to understand its circumstances. Ramesh, with his wife and daughter, is the owner. A very chatty sort, who had learnt his English fro...

On a journey that involves 18 flights, you rely upon them heavily to get you to B, in a timely manner, so that you can get on with the itinerary. Our flight to Pokhara is a mere 80 miles, covered in 25 minutes, as the road journey is 6 hours to do 200kms. However, arriving at the domestic terminal at 7.30am things soon start to unravel. There is heavy rain at Pokhara and all flights are delayed. An 8.00 update, becomes 9.00, and then 10.00. We are without a ‘ph...

Despite trying to be rational, law of averages, etc it’s hard not to anxious flying in to an airport that had a major crash just over two weeks ago! Safely on the ground, we walk in to the arrivals lounge, to do battle with the visa machine. Recently introduced, impossible to fill in online, a nice chap helps us, once at the head of the line. Basically, he ignores most of the requested details, once completed we go to pay. Their payment system is down so, it...

Nothing is ever easy; we meet our guide to be told our flight to Nepal was rescheduled at midnight and was leaving at 08.40! As it's 8.30 and we are an hour from the airport, we are toast! It's not unusual for flight alterations, however, this one has slipped through the agent's fingers. The only alternative is to head to the airport to establish our options of getting to Nepal, and when? En route, it turns out, another flight to Kathmandu has materialised, we a...