Quite unusually, I didn’t get a good night sleep. For a start, being Friday night, the clubs were pounding out music and even though it wasn’t loud, it was enough to disturb me. Then it was a little milder tonight. My sleep was light and short, waking up at 0400. Perhaps it was the beer […]

My days in Pokhara had been hazy so far. For that reason, I opted not to make the effort to go to Sarangkot to see the sunrise illuminating the Annapurna range. After breakfast, it was obvious I needed to fill in some time. I kinda thought it would be a waste of time/money going there, […]

I had allocated the morning for shopping and the afternoon for climbing up to the World Peace Pagoda. Nepal is heaven for buying old weather gear and active wear. I spent USD25 on replacing my Keens sandals which broke a couple of years ago, USD15 on a Under Armour compression top, USD15 on a Haglofs […]

I woke at 0600 when it was still cold and dark. Today is the day I receive my Christmas present from Kim to do parahawking. I kept warm in bed till 0700 before slowly emerging from the covers and eventually left the hotel at 0900 after breakfast. It was a 15 min walk to the […]

I woke around 0415, an hour before my alarm. I lay in bed until the alarm, then packed up and headed down to reception around 0545. I had to find someone to let me out of the compound. The boy unlocked the gate and then led me through to the Black Olive (where I had […]

Above:  Very strong caterers carrying a trolley up the stairs to an Airbus A320 at Kuching International Airport. With an 1145 departure, there wasn’t a rush to get going. I left the apartment at 0900 for Mum’s and headed to the airport with them. I dropped myself off and handed them the key and headed […]

After breakfast, we walked out of the old city to a taxi stand in order to have better competition and bargaining power for our ride to Dakshinkali. We managed to get a price slightly lower than that asked for by the hotel’s taxi driver. The ride took about 45 minutes. Once we left the valley, […]

After five nights in Kathmandu, we still hadn’t walked around Durbar Square yet. The weather was dull but dry so we made our way there after dropping laundry off (NPR50 per kg) and having breakfast. The destruction at Durbar Square was really bad. Key stupas are gone; the wooden structures have fallen leaving leaving behind […]