Our time in India had finally come to an end. We were excited about heading to Nepal and the adventures this would bring, as we boarded the plane headed for Kathmandu. Upon arrival we discovered that our Nepal visas needed to be paid for in cash but the ATM in the arrival hall was broken. So off Glenn went through the visa control and out of the airport to the closest ATM with airport security hardly noticing. Upon returning we were then informed that we had to get photos taken and pay for the visas in US dollars not Nepal rupees. This posed another problem because the cost was now greater than what had been withdrawn. After another quick visit to the ATM we finally had our visas, collected our luggage and were finally exiting the airport over an hour late.

The hotel we had decided to stay at happened to be in the middle of the Thamel district (tourist district) so even arriving later at night the entire place was still buzzing with activity and everything was still open, a nice surprise. We had a quick dinner in the hotel restaurant which seemed to take forever even though there were very few people dining and then it was off to bed for some much needed sleep as the upcoming days would see us busy getting ready for our upcoming trek. The following morning we set off early to find breakfast and explore our new surroundings. Much to our surprise there was very little open at 8am in the morning so after a quick breakfast at the only restaurant we could find open we headed back to the hotel to start organising our permits and bus tickets that would be needed.

Contrary to what we had been previously told, the hotel could only tell us where we needed to go to organise permits and travel instead of organising them for us. Being a Saturday we were informed the office of Tourism, who issued the trekking permits was only open till noon. With plenty of time we caught a taxi to the office only to discover our hotel was wrong and the office was shut on Saturdays. Luckily it would reopen at 10am the following morning. We walked back to our hotel to see a little of the city where we first noticed half the locals where dust masks to avoid breathing in the dirty air. The remainder of the day was spent relaxing ready for another try tomorrow.

We were up early on Sunday, back at the tourism office, ready for when they opened. One hour, three permits and $100 later we had everything (permit-wise) we required to start our trip to Everest Base Camp. We were now in need of some gear to help get us there, so we headed back to Thamel, as this was the best place to pick up what we needed for the best price. We had done a bit of research the day before, checking prices at a few of the stores around our hotel, and had a pretty good idea of what we needed and what it should cost.  We ended up finding a store around the corner that was able to supply us with everything we needed and give us a nice discount, as we were buying 2 of everything.

After a big day of shopping we headed out in search of a nice place to enjoy a quiet meal. Much to our delight we came across the Organic Green Cafe, which served a nice range of organic veg and non-veg meals, plus the best Lemonade in town. This became the place we ate most of our meals at for the next couple of days. The last thing we needed to organise was our tickets for the bus to Jiri, which would be the starting point of our journey. Again we were under the impression that our hotel would help us with this but ended up having to do this ourselves. Once shown on a map the location of the bus station we became a little disappointed as this happen to be next door to the tourism office we had visited twice in as many days. So off we went again back to organise our tickets. Once completed, tickets in hand for a 7am departure the following morning, it was time to go to the supermarket for some final supplies. The day ended with an early night sleep, ready for our next adventure, Everest Base Camp.