Ready to walk.

All being well I will be starting my hike of the Annapurna Circuit tomorrow. The first part is the day long bus ride to the start of the trek though. First I have a tourist bus from Kathmandu to Dumre then a Local bus to Besisahar and from there a four wheel drive to BhuleBhule. From Bhulebhule to Manang should be about a weeks walk and I hope to be able to post an update from there. No guarantees though so don't panic if it takes a bit longer then that before I am back updating the blog.

A day in the city.

I managed to obtain my trekking permits from the Tourist bureau in a relatively quick and painless manner the only hiccup being that I had only three passport photos on me and needed four. Luckily we managed to solve this by making a photo copy of one and attaching that to one of the forms instead. Why you need four photos for the just the one trekking permit is unclear but it does keep a few people employed filling out forms.

As the Tourist bureau is handily located at the other end of the city I used the opportunity to make some photos on the way. The first one is of one of the many street vendors in Asan Tole.

This is a small temple in the same market.


And finally this is the hotel I am staying at.

Getting organised.

It is still warm and rainy in Kathmandu and currently the road to Pokhara is blocked in various places by landslides. I am however hopeful of starting a trek on the Annapurna Circuit in a few days.
Today I will try to organize the necessary permits and hopefully most of the land slips will have been cleared in a few days So I am aiming for a start on Thursday or Friday but we'll see how it goes.

Kathmandu

I have arrived safely in Kathmandu and am now trying to figure out what to do next. The weather is still monsoonal with plenty of rain and fairly high temperatures.

Koh San road

Here are some photos to finish of the Thailand section of my travels. All taken at Koh San Road while I was having a beer.