The journey from chitwan to Kathmandu was a great journey that took us through lush green hills. Unfortunately the weather wasn't too great so visibility wasn't vey clear so we never got the opportunity to see the Annapurna ranges. We arrived at midday and after some pastry goods for lunch I went to the only genuine north face store in Kathmandu. I went abit silly as there was a 50% sale on all items so I took advantage of it.

That evening we had a nice meal and for the first time I went out to a bar, the first of the trip. There was a Nepalese band playing covers of all western songs, they weren't particular great. The had quite a unique sitting down area where you had to take your shoes off and then sit on the floor, it was great until you had to go to the toilet as you had to put your shoes back on to avoid standing in urine.

Next day was our last day on our trip and we had a guided tour of Kathmandu and saw the 3 main sites which was the monkey temple, so called as it infiltrated with hundreds of monkeys. The other places were Pashupatinath which was a Hindu temple. It was a very similar theme to Varanasi whereby they had ghats alongside a river, although it wasn't the Ganges. I did manage to witness another body being burnt whilst we were visiting, not particularly pleasant but I'm becoming used to it now. The last place we visited was called Bouddhanath, I believe it was Buddhist pagoda. It had the prayer flags attached to it which is very common in Nepal. The morning tour was good, although the overcast and raining weather wasn't very good, we also got our first experience of Kathmandu traffic which is pretty atrocious. The streets are very narrow in Kathmandu and it takes hours to get any where as they become congested very quickly.

The last evening saw us all go out for our last meal, except the Russian woman as by this stage during the trip she had annoyed everyone and seemed to isolate herself from the rest of the group. She was a pain though, I didn't interact with her much, I gave her a nickname of "slobadom" and she told me to turn my iPod down on the bus but that was about it.

On Monday after saying goodbye to some of the members from the group, a couple of us went to visit Bhaktapuri a heritage site/town outside of Kathmandu which has numerous pagodas. We didn't get off to great start as we caught a taxi and unfortunately were involved in a car accident. I'm ok, although my head and shoulders are aching a little and I was a little shook up, if I was In the uk I would get compensation, but insurance in these countries is non existent so I would prob be laughed at. Basically the taxi driver stopped quite sharpish at a set of traffic lights and the guy behind didn't stop and ploughed into the back of us. It caused quite a lot of commotion and the two people involved were arguing in the street whilst we waited in the back of the taxi. Eventually the traffic police were called and then we were all taken to the police station as the taxi driver wanted to sort it out. Eventually we were driven by the taxi driver in his written off taxi, including the guy who had rammed him (he got a lift too in the passenger seat) to Bhaktapuri.

We wandered around bhaktapuri and I really enjoyed it, although we were picked up by the same the taxi driver on the way home so I was rather anxious as everytime he broke I looked behind in preparation for someone ramming into him again.

On Tuesday there was only 2 of us left from the trip so instead of sitting around Kathmandu spending more money in the shops we decided to book on a trek around the hills outside of Kathmandu. It was a good trek, although the weather for the first few hours wasn't particular great as it was cold and raining. We walked to 2 temples which were placed on top of 2 separate hills. The first was a Buddhist temple which was spectacular and had great views over Kathmandu valley. The second temple was a Hindu temple and it wasn't so spectacular, more like a pile of bricks on top of a hill. The walk lasted all day and my garmin tracked that we did 12.36 miles which is a bit shorter than the guides estimate of 35km, which i did happen to think was an exaggeration at the time. I thoroughly enjoyed the walk as we got to see a part of Kathmandu I wouldn't have experiences otherwise and it was nice to get some fresh air and stretch my legs before everest base camp on Thursday.

I start my journey to everest base camp on Thursday and I'm really looking forward to it. People have shown me quite a few pictures they've taken along the trek and they do look spectacular. I'm a little anxious of the flight, the cold and if I'm going to suffer with the altitude but apart from that I think it's going to be a great experience. I'm so looking forward to it.