Day 3 Kathmandu Oct 19th

Woke up after a night in slumber land due to lack of sleep I was sparko, which is unusual for me as Im normally a light sleep sleeper. The Hotel is an old colonial hotel in drastic need of TLC as my room smells strongly of damp but is tidy enough with guards everywhere with the old colonial uniforms on and moustache who stand to attention as you walk by them with huge smiles on their faces and always give you a PROPER salute. They clocked my Help for heroes wristband, yes honestly its even known out here and due to the gurka regiment is held in the highest of esteems. They love anything about the British armed forces, although I was informed that it is changing now from the old guard to the new comers, who are in for it to due to the fact that they get a free passport to england.

The bloke with me is actually hotel security who was another one who spotted my HFO wristband however the regular soldiers are everywhere even though its as safe as houses here and everyone smiles and gives you the clasp prayer hand. Even the beggers seem to leave you alone as soon as you leave them alone and even though they have no money are all dressed decent enough unlike them scum out in teneriffe who pester you to death.

The midget below is actually a bellboy who went absolutely mental with me yesterday as I went to carry by big bag upstairs, he carried two of them on his shoulders, not daft me by the way I went in the bar to escape the tip :)

See there is someone smaller than me, and trust me as strong as an ox as well.

We went for a fantastic trip around the city today with a tour guide, I found that there was an aussie on our trip in his 30s with "thank the lord allah, a chip on his shoulder about beating the british, so me and him had a stupid obligatory boys race up some palace that had 350 steps today, neck and neck and both breathing through our noses pretending not to be knackered with our mouths closed ave ittt, ha ha ha gotta be done. Just to piss him off as he is in his 30s I added a year to my age and said Im 50, he he, you could say he was not best chuffed.

The temples here and the city is just one huge paradise for a photographer, I blasted off 200 in 4 hours, I think the aussie beat me as he has one of them huge canon eos cameras with the big lenses.

The tour guide told me that the average wage for a farmer here is $300 a year about 450quid ie 150 dollors to a 100 quid and for a normal worker about $400 ie hotel staff shop staff etc. I asked him what about a doctor or engineer or professionally qualified person university etc and he said, actually roy we are finding that doctors etc are now getting into tour guides nowadays as it pays more money with tips. He said I had heard this countless times but never actually met a doctor myself who had given up his profession to be a tour guide until 2 months ago when one started working for us. I then asked about the price of property thinking it must be peanuts, he said the government has just put a stop on whats called land grab as lots of people were selling to the highest bidder and the average person did not stand a chance as average prices in kathmandu city centre ie highest priced area was 100,000 pound sterling. Most people rent though.

Anyway today will be the last day for a while that I can upload or update this or facebook as we set off tomorrow for the dodgey airport ie lukla a 4:15am get out of bed. 

I have tried updating facebook via text but it fails as its a uk normal number something like 31234 or what ever so I prefixed it with 44 and then tried 0044 and neither worked so seen as 3g is mentally expensive via mobile catch you all from about 18000feet or higher depending on the Glacier up there