Touched base at Kathmandu..

15th May 2006.

Greetings friends!

Today morning we were given a warm send off by our Sahyadri trekking buddies - Amit Kasture and Aditya Deshpande, who put garlands around our neck, a tradition that we have been following since the last 4 odd years, whenever any of our trek mates go for a Himalayan expedition. It felt great, and we drove down to Mumbai, had a great time chilling out at the Sahara International Airport before getting airborne.

About 4 hours back when I glanced down from the window of the plane, I imagined like I was flying over infinite bales of cotton spread all over, till my vision could reach. Flying over clouds at sunset time was a wonderful experience.

Royal Nepal Airlines wasn't too late this time, we had just about an hour's delay (while departing). A short 2 hour 10 minute flight has brought us from Mumbai (0m ASL) to Kathmandu (1300m ASL), the capital of the trekkers' haven, Nepal.

This time, being an official expedition, as I mentioned in one of the previous posts, we were received by Mr. Gupta, a liason between our trek agency organiser (Mr. Raj) and Kathmandu Guest House (from where I'm writing this post). We were again adorned by garlands, for the second time in a single day, and I must say we were overwhelmed by the gesture. Kathmandu Guest House is one of most well known places to stay at in the busy tourist district of Thamel in Kathmandu. It is a stone's throw away from our trekking agency's office Gurkha Encounters.

Mr. Raj (our trekking agency manager) was there to welcome us at Kathmandu Guest House. It was good on our part to have recognised him, that made him feel good as well. After all, we were seeing him after 18 months!

Kathmandu Guest House (KGH) is a very well known place in Thamel, Kathmandu. Being around 40 years old, it happens to be the first tourist guest house in Kathmandu. It is a very famous place, and a considerable number of expedition members choose this as their staying place in Kathmandu. It was at KGH where Anatoli Boukreev, the world reknowned mountaineer, met Scott Fischer, the climbing leader of the Mountain Madness company in 1996. And it was this very place where the deal was struck between Scott and Anatoli to climb Everest together in 1996. You can find references for this fact in the book 'The Climb' written by Anatoli Boukreev and G. Weston DeWalt.

We've had a peaceful dinner, and now I'm planning to nicely tuck in to bed. Tomorrow is going to be a busy day, we start our documentation formalities and expedition gear buying/renting. We have to also buy bits and pieces that we planned to get from Kathmandu. But we have 3 days from May 16 onwards, so we feel comfortable.

Given the fact that I have got a chance to write this post as early as today, I definitely will be posting something before I leave Kathmandu for Tibet (thats on May 19).

Till then, enjoy, take care, pray for us and send us your good wishes like you always have been.

Aniket "Nike" Anikhindi