Today was to be our last day in Kathmandu so we thought we would hit the streets and see where we ended up. We planned on going to the Royal Palace where in 2001 the Prince went on a rampage and shot about 13 members of the Royal family and staff (yes we are a little morbid) but unfortunately it was closed. On our way we met an Indian guy called Rajeet who moved to Nepal with his family and he told us that there was a Buddhist festival on today that only occurs...

Lukla is a 3-4 hour walk uphill from Phakding and it is a small place where the planes to Kathmandu leave from. The trail was very busy because there is a local market in Namche where the Sherpa people take their goods to sell on Saturdays. The stuff people were carrying up the mountain was just incredible. There were people carrying raw buffalo meet on their backs and the walk is 7 hours so you can only imagine the smell. Our guide said that the meat is 9 days o...

Well our guide was certainly right when he said that the walk from Phakding to Namche would be tough. The first few hours trekking on flat ground lulled us into thinking the walk would be easy but the final 3 hours was all steep uphill torture!!! I must admit I was cursing my little legs at times but we made it all the way up to Namche which is 3440 meters above sea level. Namche is a great little town with about a hundred tea lodges set into the side of the mou...

With such an early flight the next day we knew we had to get an early night but we stumbled across a bar with a Nepalese cover band pumping out hits from Tracy Chapman and Cranberries so we ended up staying out late until the power cut out (a nightly occurance in Nepal due to "power shedding"). On the way back to the hotel the streets were pitch black. We were sitting ducks for a mugging but we made it safely back to our room ut only 4 hours later we we...

After what seemed like an eternity in the plane we were flying into Nepal and all the boredom was totally forgotten as we got our first glimpse of Mt Everest. It was magical flying above the clouds and seeing the massive mountain at eyelevel. It was every bit as beautiful as I imagined. Kathmandu on the other hand was a very very very big culture shock. From the burnt out planes at the airport to the rubbish and rubble on the streets we were not sure if we would ...