Namaste from Kathmandu!

Here I finally am in Kathmandu, Nepal. Yesterday I arrived and checked in the Kathmandu Guesthouse, where Jacky (jack-ass) was waiting. The trip to the hotel helped me to get a good impression of the city. It's like a a million houses scattered around in a mountain scenery. Everything roaming freely through the city (like cows and goats) and no traffic rules at all.

Ok there I was then and hungry as hell. Luckily Jacky arranged a singaporean stingray dish at a local restaurant. You might not understand this part so let me explain. When I was in Singapore, I loved the stingray dish. So I asked jacky (as a joke) to bring some stingray over to Kathmandu. So he really took that into consideration. As it was pretty hard to bring a fish on the plane, he decided to bring the special sauce & onions. So he want out in kathmandu and looked for a restaurant who could prepare their fish with the special stingray sauce. Thats all about that.

After dinner we made an attempt to arrange our Kathmandu-EBC-Lhasa tour, so we wandered around in the Thamel district (dis district is the main tourist area with alot of shops, entertainment, restaurants and stuff). Unfortunately, most of the agencies were already closed because it was pretty late. We passed by some of them but they couldn't provide us with a satisfying deal. There is like a standard tour from kathmandu to lhasa which every agency can provide, but a tour passing the EBC (everest base camp) isn't that common, so they need to arrange a private tour. The transportation will be by jeep and the maximum capacity is four person. This means that we had to find two travel companions to get a cheapest deal per person. So looking at the hassle of finding two travellers within 2 days (we would like to leave on wednesday) and the extra costs for a private tour, we decided to go for the less satisfying but cheaper standard kathmandu - lhasa tour. Another reason was the extra days it would cost us to pass the EBC because of the acclimatisation rules (you should elevate no more than 400m a day starting from 3000m).
After arranging some stuff, it was time to chill. So we went to grab some beers and a shisha at a bar with live music, just next to the kathmandu guesthouse.

The next day (today), we woke up at 6:30AM. Yeah I know, that's a hell of a time. It was because of the rafting daytrip which Jacky arranged. Somebody picked us up and we took the bus to the rafting place. The drive took us around 3 hours, which isn't because of the distance but the crazy traffice and steep mountain roads. Once we arrived at that place, the rafting instructor picked us up and lead us to the river. There were two other Nepali guys who set up the raft and toured along with us, together with 3 other tourists. The river on which we would raft on was today rated as a level 3/4 river. Normally, it's a level 2/3 river, but it got upgrade because of the monsoon season. The levels starts from 1, which is easy and can go up to 6, which is insane. So our river is somewhere in between. The rafting was a great exprience. Alot of fast streams and some slower streams to catch a breath. I would compare it to a long rollercoaster ride, but alot more entertaining and less mind dazzling. I should definately do this again once I get in china or maybe some kayaking.

Ok, so then we went back to kathmandu by bus and something exciting happened. Jacky was sleeping a was awake because of these tiny bus seats. I couldn't get a comfortable sitting position. The seats are covered with a silk-like fabric and the leaning part was set in a 120 degrees angle. So, it was impossible to sit steady and still because of all the bumps in the road which will push you up and once you land, the silk and the angled backpart will slide you further down the seat. That's one thing. The second is, there is no room to slide to! Once I sit, my knees already touch the seats in front of me. So everytime the bus hits a bump, I feel like my knees are launched into a metal wall. Okay, I just wanted to let my frustration out. Back to the exciting part. So Jacky was sleeping and I was awake. Ow damn, first i have to explain you about the traffic in the Nepali mountain. These people drive like crazy and I mean crazy, because I have seen some car wrecks down the hill. Like every mountain, the mountains here got alot of turns. The drivers over here don't care about what is coming and will just try to pass the car in front of them (kindly reminds me of how sokha used to drive), even just in front of a turn. So they act so crazy in front of a turn, they don't have a problem acting the same way on a straight road. Okay, so the bus did the passing by stunt alot of times and it all went ok. The other bus, car and truck drivers got the same driving style. So about halfway the road I saw a truck approaching us and it didn't seemed to have anticipated the traffic situation that well. So he headed straight to us! Luckily, my driver wasn't a big daredevil and so he didn't accept the kamikaze stand off. Then he turned the steer as much to the right as he could. I thought, Ok luckily i'm still alive, but then we got launched a little but, just like in knightrider and we suddenly stopped. The impact wasn't that hard, so don't worry. Then everybody got out and I saw that the bus drove into a ditch. The front wheels where hanging and the middle part of the bus was leaning on the edge. Ok that is just great! Jacky was asleep during the actions scene and he kept on sleeping once it happened. I guess it didn't impressed him that much, because these things probably happen in singapore on a daily basis. Ok, there we were, stuck somewhere in the mountains.

After a few minutes, a stranded Nepali guy who also sat in the crashed bus, pulled over an other bus. So we got onto that one. Unfortunately, the seats where all full and the only place left was on the roof. Looking at the facts that we still had 2 hours of road, the rooftop isn't designed for sitting, the people here drive like crazy and the roads are not that smooth, we were in for another hell of a ride. The rooftop was covered with a frame of steel bars, meant for additional luggage and other stuff. So when you sit, you sit on those thin bars which will quite hurt your ass after a while. The bus was also moving in every direction, so I also had to hold on tight to prevent me from falling of this ride. Once we arrived in the outer areas of kathmandu, the busboy suddenly threw us off the bus. So there we were, somewhere in kathmandu with no transportation. We had to find another cab to bring us to our hotel and so we got "home" in one piece. (p.s.: please don't tell anything to my parents about this incident)

Now I am back in the hotel. We just got some food a nice cheapy as Takhari restaurant. The bill of the diner was 300 rupe total (for two person). Thats' probably about 3,5 euro's (I like cheapy good food). We also passed by a tour agancy, which was the only one still open. Now we probably have a good idea what kind of tour we want. We only need to check out some other agencies first before making the final decision. We are planning to take the standard tour, which leaves on tuesday. The chinese is open on monday and the agencies need to apply for the visa before 11am. This means that need our passports around 9am. So we will get up at 7am tomorrow morning, check out some other travel agencies and set the deal. Afterwards we are going to check out the whole city. Probably with a private city tour or something like that. Ok, I am going to shut down and get a shower. I will update you later on the rest.