Day 45 : Monday 6th November: Kathmando

Because of the horrendous journey yesterday, today’s start is scheduled for 11.00am. I’ve developed my second bout of Delhi belly and didn't improve the situation with the beer last night but I needed it. The breakfast although good took a good hour to be served, speed not in the Nepalese gene pack. I sat in the shade looking at the beautiful mountainous scenery doing heavy breathing exercises every time I got a stomach cramp.

The journey to Kathmandu which took well over four hours with the traffic congestion in the city, made last nights effort look positively stupid. We were heading up a mountainside road full of potholes, mad Nepalese lorry drivers, at least three over turned lorries and a drop of three or four hundred feet into the river below.

On our first glimpse of the legendary city it looked like all the stinking, over-populated, poverty stricken holes we'd been through in India. The hotel looked better from the inside than the outside but our room worse so far. It was a box of a hole with a double bed that sloped down to the headboard even though the floor was flat, a dirty bathroom with no door lock and bad lighting that made everything look worse. Instead of kicking up a fuss we rushed off to eat with Barry who'd been here a couple of days and was raving about the place. It didn’t seem appropriate to spoil his image of the place. It was only later that I found out he wasn’t staying in our hotel. He later admitted their hotel was cleaner and surprisingly cheaper.

The bar he recommended was good as was the food but the live band were exceptional especially the singer, lead and bass guitarists. After an hour or two we decided to move bars and headed off into the night and the maze of streets. Unfortunately I had to rush back to our hotel to use the toilet. I’d obviously been feeding my Delhi belly but when we came out we couldn't find the rest of the group and had to abandon the evening much to Anne’s annoyance. I agreed to go and have a coffee in a quaint little coffee shop. No sooner had we received our drinks and the staff started to turn the lights out, close everything down and lock the doors. We were in no doubt they wanted us out. Rather bad practice for a business. Nothing left to do but head back to the dingy room and sleep.