First Impressions

What we could see (but you can't as my head's in the way!) as we looked out the plane window, as we approached our holiday destination, was the beautiful sight of the snow capped Himalayas.


For those who hadn't worked it out, our flag is the national flag of Nepal and this is where we went for our latest adventure.

Our prime reason for travelling there was to write the Everest region trekking chapter for the Friendly Planet Guide - of course we planned to enjoy the trekking as well - it wasn't all going to be work.

However, like all good trips to Nepal, before we went trekking, we spent a fascinating couple of days in the capital city, Kathmandu.

From the airport we were transported to a rather nice hotel - the Hotel Mountain - within walking distance of the city centre. Starting off in a quality hotel was great as it helped us acclimatise to such a different culture to our own, and all the noise, bustle and fumes.


Just exploring the hotel's reception area was an adventure in itself. There were all sorts of amazing wooden carvings of Hindu deities. We wondered if we could get garlands of flowers, like they were wearing, and tikka marks on our foreheads, as they might help us blend in and look a little less like tourists.

We had a couple of hours to explore before dinner, so made our first foray out of the hotel on paw. Only a few doors down was the American Embassy, bristling with armed guards so we felt quite safe, assuming there were no terrorists around. We obviously did look very much like tourists though, as lots of shopkeepers wanted to talk to us, and to sell us their goods.

We felt very glad to have arrived safely in such a fascinating place.

Lots of love George & Yorkie xxx