Kirt and Curry's Kathmandu Chrimbo

After what had been an exceptionally hectic year, the time came for everyone to have a nice, relaxing Christmas break. Everyone except Cuzz and I that is. It had been apparent to me for some time that I was going to have to go to Kathmandu for the purposes of the expedition. There were too many loose ends over there to tie up from here via phone or email. So, I went to Cuzza to book me a flight. However, you can't discuss something like this with Al without sparking the man's interest, such is his love of travel. Within minutes of asking him to check flight availibility he came back to me with some options in general and one that would enable him to tag along, would I mind? Well, obviously I was glad to welcome him along but I didn't know then how grateful I'd really end up being having him there.

The flight was relatively painless and we arrived at 6pm local time on Christmas day. Nir, MD of Peace Nepal Treks our trekking company, awaited us with a sign 'Mr Kirt Lee' . He was joined by one of his guides, Billy. We were greeted with some quite fetching orange garlands to be warn around are necks. Without much said, we were whisked in a taxi into the madness that is Kathmandu. Within a few minutes though we were holed up in thick traffic. 'We will have to walk the last 10 minutes to the Hotel Mr Kirt' On further enquiry it became apparent that this was due to Thammel, the area we were staying in, being comletely blocked of for a Christmas festival.

Now, there's a few things that these politically correct wazzoks over here could learn from Nepal. I'm talking about the idiots that ban the use of the word Christmas and insist we call it 'Holidays' in case we offend people from other religions. Well, for starters I'm not a yank and therefore will never in all my born days refer to it as Holidays. Secondly, Nepal is a Hindu country with a strong Buddhist influence. Christians make up ess than 5% of the population. However, the party that these guys were having in the name of Chistmas makes anything we do over here look like a gathering for AA. We had to fight our way through about 20,000 people partying like it was 1999. What should've been a 5 minute amble was turned into a 20 minute battle against merry-makers determined to eat, drink and be merry. Just to finish my point though even Bahrain airport was decorated with more festive cheer than most of London.

After dropping our bags, it was off to dinner with Nir and Billy and then on for beers. After a while, the two of them really loosened off and it became clear that we would get along. However, there was much business to do over the coming days so we behaved ourselves pretty well. Oh, except Billy, who within no time at all was dancing around. In about 5 minutes he went from the quitest man around to just about the most talkative, his English also noticibly improving in the same time-scale.

And so to business. Well, first up was the Himalayan Rescue Association at 11am the following morning. I had been a research volunteer with these guys on my last outing to Everest and had kept in touch since. These guys are one of the leading authrities on Altitude sickness research and treatment and have a growing presence all over the Himalayas. As well as providing well-neeeded rescue services they also offer general health treatment in the mountain regions - this is free for all locals and guides. I had asked them to offer the support of a doctor for our trip in return for a suitable donation. We discussed the trip in detail and they stated that they would be happy to support us and would put together a proposal, and that now we must go to lunch.

In our talks to Nir, it became apparent that he was a very stressed man. The process of gaining us permission to do this had gone from being straight forward and certain to convoluted and unsure. There a numerous reasons for this which I won't bore you with, but essentially the goal posts had been moved substantially and it was getting Nir down. 'If I can't gain you permission you're project will fail and I will have to close my business in shame.' 'Err, chill Nir. Nobody is closing anything. We'll work through it.'

Well, that comment was akin to opening Pandoras box during a sand-storm. From that point on our days were filled with visiting numerous Government buildings, buttering up Nepali civil servants and convincing most of the nations management that we are good people, with good intentions and an awesome product. Luckily the project sells itself pretty well and people didn't need too much convincing. However, as was explained many times, there is a process which much be adhered to. With such a young democracy, that process is not set in stone and hence the constantly moving goal-posts. All we could do is see as many people as possible, which we duly did. At some point we even managed to squeeze in a visit to Mr Pandi, the head of the Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN). Mr Pandi is a very influential man who liked our idea very much and offered to help us 'unblock any bottle-necks' an offer we will surely cash in.

So other than the inside of government buildings what did we do? Well, we saw a lot of Kathmandu, including the incredible Durbar Square. Anywhere else in the world this amazing collection of 486 Hindu and Budhist shrines and temples would be an oasis of peace. Instead it'sone of the busiest throughfares in all of Kathmandu and you have to dodge motorcycles as frequently as you have to dodge industrious tour-guides. We hooked up with my old mate Dharma and showed Cuzza the delights of Tongba (hot millet beer - see my earlier blog) as well as sampling various local cusines, including Dal Baht which is rice and lentil based and something that we will all be living off in the mountains. Under local custom they will keep refilling your metal dal baht plate until you are satisfied, which is a result. We also managed to catch up with Team Hillary's own Charlie B-N and his sister for a few drinks.

We had the usual antics - lots of cards, no small amount of beer, got to know a few of our guides for April, met plenty of people etc. After a couple of really good nights out we were genuinly looking forward to our last night -New Years Eve. However, with a couple of hours to go until midnight we were both struck down with some horrendous illness. Without going into too much detail, this was a truly unpleasant episode that left us fighting for our rooms lavatory. I sepent the stroke of midnight passed out with stomach cramps and a fever. This illness, whatever it is, escorted us both back to the UK. Truly the worst plane journey of my life. I'm still not 100% now. Rubbish.

And that was our trip. Mostly busy, no little fun and a small amount of horrendousness. However, I am exceptionally grateful that Al came along for the ride. His input was invaluable and he was, of course, great fun. Cheers big man!

Anyway, Happy New Year everyone. Should be a bit special, this one.