I'm in Nepal!

So finally we're in Nepal. I was excited about heading up this way and it's nice to be up in the real mountains. It seems like it's been so long.

Yesterday we arrived in Kathmandu. Cities in south east Asia are all the same. Chaotic, crowded and crazy. Initially there wasn't much difference between Delhi and Kathmandu, but after a few hours the subtleties became apparent.

It seems that people bother the tourist more up here. We took a cab from the airport and we weren't sure which hotel we wanted to stay in so we just headed to the main tourist section of town to get dropped off. The cabbie tries to tell us that he's only taking us to the beginning of the Thamel district. I said, 'No, you're taking us to this particular hotel. The guy at the airport said that's where we'd go. You say he's lying, well I say you're lying.'

He eventually took us further, but then another random guy jumped in the cab and said he knew where this hotel we were looking for is. Whenever someone wants to help to find a cheap room, all they really want is a commission from the hotel, which means the room is a higher price. To the confusion of the cabbie and the newbie, Ash and I exited the cab right then and there and decided to do things on our own.

We found a hotel that was nice in the afternoon, but once the sun set, the bar downstairs started and it felt like we were trying to fall asleep in a bumping music hall. I fell right asleep. When there is that much noise everything just melts together and it's all like ambient background noise.

The next morning we arose at 5am to catch the tourist bus to Pokhara. The bus ride wasn't as crazy as people make it out to be. The roads are tight, the cliffs are tall and the trucks are big, but all in all it was sane.

So now we're here and we're happy.