Nothings gonna stop us now

So after hitting Asia with a massive thud last night, I awoke to take my first peeks at Kathmandu from my hotel room. It was kinda how expected it - but at the same time completely different - you can see the typical market street in Tarmal, Kathmandu. The town itself is pretty crazy - driving is on the left but generally it's just every man or motorbike for himself - there's more horn honkin' than NYC. The shops are kinda like you'd expect; wools, novelty goods, knives, insense - a shop keeper at the front of each one trying to get your attention - they're okay though - none give you excessive hassle.

We spent the morning with our guide sorting out permits for trekking and withdrawing some Nepalese rupees - I feel well and truly spent today. I managed to blow 35,000! We bought him a drink and sat discussing our route for the next 18 days. It turns out that we have to endure an 8 hour bus ride to get to the first station for trekking - that was the same length as our flight here except I doubt we'll get Herbie to watch this time round - I think I'll just be grateful if I'm not sat on the roof!

This afternoon started out with some lovely hot sunshine, so we made a move up to see the 'Monkey Temple'. We'd been warned about these thieving little monkeys grabbing anything they could but they moved too fast. I got double teamed - one posed for me on a ledge with a great view behind, as I knelt to snap a pic - I felt a grab around my right ribs, as I turned to see who it was, the moneky had made off with my near full bottle of Mountain Dew! I didn't mind too much since it was flat anyway and 2 months out of date. Incidentally the Nepalese guy who sold it to me said to me "you England", to which I said "yes", to which he replied:


"David Beckham!
Rio Ferdinand,
Joe Cole,
GiGere Drogba ( I guessed he meant Didier),
Frank Lampard,
CHELSEA CHELSEA!!!"

I had to laugh with him, those were the only English words he knew. We had some Nepalese quisine on a roof top overlooking the valley while it started to rain. More monkeys were seen stealing some DVDs from a buddhist seller. Surrealism for the Westerner at it's best...