Yesterday

Decide to walk round to Shakti the new hotel, which probably wasn't a bright idea. I've got a backpack and I'm humping a suitcase along, and going through worse and worse neighbourhoods, until I eventually find it. It's really strange, it's a big neat and tidy 2 star job in the middle of this dumpy area. Maybe won't be walking in and out of here at night.

Was pretty hassled coming round, but managed to baffle one of the trek touts by offering him a trek round Dagenham for very good price, and very big discount as he is my friend. He now thinks Dagenham is beautiful and will probably tell that to anyone who comes from England now. 

I'm sharing, haven't met my roommate yet, I'm figuring he's the Italian as he is called Gabriel, but you never know. It's pretty weird having to share, but we're going to all be in pretty close proximity for the next three weeks. 

This place has a garden, most of the others have some sort of roof business, you can see quite a bit more sky here, there's a couple of what I think are Griffons circling really high up and hundreds of swift-type birds. They won't go hungry with all these flies that's for sure. 

You have to pay the wifi here, 100NR for an hour, which a lot of other places do for free. Probably move on as soon as we get back, maybe up to Pokhara, which is a 7-9hr bus ride, but it's the best way to see a country and I'm here to see more than KTM and the himalaya. 

Tonight we have the welcome dinner, I'm not really that bothered, sure it'll be lovely and all that, but I'm anxious and want to get moved on to the trek.

The number of goats tied up in the street is increasing. In a few days they'll be headless and in the pot. Imagine if we had to kill the Xmas turkey on the day before rather than get it prepacked from Tesco. Other turkeys are available from other good stores. 

So Pradip the company boss turns up, and he says he can save some money if I do the guided tour of KTM tomorrow, I am a 'resident' and should know it very well. I tell him I do it for very good price. 

We're now 9 for the trek, and 8 for the mountain, there's a girl who's leaving us before climbing. She's the only girl coming along. There's also another Brit Dave, which is actually a bit of a relief, although I am paired for now with the Italian. We're all meeting in a couple of hours for briefing and dinner. I've spent the day sorting gear, trying to work out what I need and what I don't. Pradip likes my boots. He's not getting them though!! I just have to get the flight out of the way. 

One of the kids here who picks shit up and moves it around as far as I can tell is wearing a ball cap that he has very carefully written 'Nike' on in marker pen on the back, the front says 'Chuck's Mowers, Denver' or something. I'd love to see what would happen to a teenager who made his own Nike ball cap back home.

It's now raining hard, just in time for Dishanwy, just like Xmas at home. 

Met up with the team, strange mix. Two Norwegians, girls who seem serious mountaineers, off to Anconcagua next yesr.  Ken's an Aussie fireman and a top bloke, there's a family of Americans, where the parents have been here often, and my roomy Gab who is Italian and also here for his fortieth, seems a decent bloke. Think we're a good group, and we all enjoyed the cultural night, dancing and traditional Nepali food. One of the Norwegians is a nurse and I think we've all got a strong chance of a summit. Unless we drink much Rakshi. Then we'll all die.