Yabba dabba Kathmandu!

We finally made it to Kathmandu after an interesting journey. We started up the mountain trail from Hetuada on good roads. The scenery was fantastic and just can’t be captured in a photo - we stopped to have a wander across a suspension foot bridge across a river - very bouncy!





The road then got much worse. About 10km from Kathmandu there was a traffic jam and we could see the line of trucks and cars weaving up the mountain. The road got much steeper and we ended up driving up it in the dark, and the headlights on the tuk are about as much use as a candle! I drove to the top of the hill and Ste took over - we thought we had a couple of km to the city but it was just to the outskirts. We got a guy to guide us to a hotel and had a 15km drive down even more bonkers roads than we’ve had so far, but we finally arrived at the Kathmandu Guest House with secure parking and beer on tap!
Today we had a guided tour of Durbar Square in Kathmandu. It was excellent


On the way back to the hotel to do a few odd jobs (like McGill getting a hair cut) a girl tried to sell me a cheap Nepalese bag for a quid - we know that you can haggle people down to at least half the asking price or sometimes a lot less, but this girl was about the age of my Liah and this is her day-to-day means of making a living, so she got a quid. Even though I didn’t really want the bag, but her cut must be pennies! A bit further down the street we saw a big advertising sign saying ‘if you have sex with a child in Nepal you will go to jail for at least 16 years’. One of our charities is Maiti Nepal, and it works to help children and young girls trafficked into the sex trade. Last night, when Jukesy had gone to bed, me and McGill went to get some fags. At the hotel gate the security guard said it wasn’t safe to go out because of the time of night and he offered to go and get us some fags (nice guy, like most of the people here!). While we stood by the gate a seedy bloke wandered over and said ‘You like Nepalese girls? 5000 (that’s about 50 quid). for an hour, or you can have 2 hours, or all night. What room are you in, I’ll send someone?’. I think the sex trade has obviously been identified as a problem here, but is still going on - I also think people at home should be making some donations to Maiti Nepal though our charity link.