Day 2 - Kathmandu

The downside of an early night is waking up early and I get up at about 6 to catch up on a few things before we head off for breakfast at about 8. This is followed by meeting the Himalayan records team who try to meet all groups doing one of the big climbs - my first but hopefully not last inclusion in this august database. 

After this we discuss the trip in a bit more detail and the useful tweaks to the usual mountaineering gear and equipment. I have also just bought a Go Pro and so happily spend the remaining time up until we head off for a spot of shopping setting it up. My plan is to take quite a bit of footage on this expedition and to try and make a video of it and my upcoming expeditions. 

A key bit of kit is turning out to be a pair of cheap but warm gloves that you can wear on descents when there is a lot of letting ropes run through your hands as this will break gloves quickly and you don't want to do this to your £200 high tech ones. So we get to one of the more reputable shops in town to buy a pair of their cheap knock-offs which seems a little strange and although they claim to sell genuine gear as well you do wonder how strict they are on keeping the two apart. After that we head for a perfectly nice but ridiculously overpriced Westernised cafe for a spot of lunch before returning to the hotel for our final preparations to the flight to Lukla tomorrow morning. Lukla is the main starting point for much of the trekking and climbing here.  Our flight is at 10 or 11 am so we will have plenty of time for a leisurely morning and final packing tomorrow but things frequently don't go as planned or expected here so we mostly finalise our packing tonight. 

Again we meet at 6 for an evening beer before meeting our local agents for the rearranged cultural show - I have not managed to come up with a polite way of avoiding it and our agents have asked so nicely it would need a really good reason to get out. 

The promised 10 minute drive obviously becomes a lot longer and we then pull into the largest and best built building that I have seen in Kathmandu and there is a lady giving Tikkas to everyone going in. This has all the hallmarks of the usual poor quality and expensive charade that is so common. However, once in the food is actually both pretty authentic and tasty and the dancers are actually enjoying what they are doing rather than being embarrassed by the old fashioned dances that they are having to perform for the foreigners. I am sitting next to the owner of the local travel agency and it is fascinating talking to him about the development of his businesses after being a trekking guide. He set up his travel company, opened a restaurant in the middle of Thamel and is one of the two partners in the hotel we are staying in. His future plans include opening a 5* hotel in Katmandu that is Nepali owned and run and setting up a hydro electric power station!

As is the tradition here, we have left our shoes outside the performance / dining room and on the way out my flip flops appear to have disappeared. That is pretty strange as the Nepalis all have pretty small feet and none of the other guests appeared would have suited them either. We have a bit of a comical search for them in the narrow corridor where the shoes were left and are joined by a rather drunk Japanese man whose main contribution seems to be laughing uproariously at jokes - usually his own but ours as well regardless of whether or not he understands them. 

It is all a bit of a mystery until we see the band wandering through and putting on clearly too large flip flops to head upstairs to what is presumably their green room. I head up there with the local agent and to my relief and everyone's amusement (including the poor embarrassed young chap who had used them by mistake) my flip flops are on the rack of spare footwear that they use. 

On the way back to the hotel the agent breaks the news that in fact we are now on the 07:30 flight and so we need to be ready to leave the hotel at 05:45 am. A bit of a change of plan for those still tying to catch up on sleep and so looking forward to an early night and a bit of a lie in as well. Since breakfast won't be ready at that time and, to aid a swift departure, the hotel will prepare us a packed breakfast. 

Therefore it is a last beer and final packing when we get back to the hotel before an early night.