An easy visa-on-arrival, met and greeted by our trip leader, Sanjeev, a graduate of Delhi University who has been leading treks in Nepal since 1990. Malla Treks is a joint venture with Mountain Travel Sobek and Malla was the Kathmandu agency who would take care of the entire Nepal trip.

Our full group of 16 were bused to the Malla Hotel, only a short distance from Durbar Square, Thamel and the many bazaars…and a stone’s throw from the Presidential Palace. A beautiful hotel, ideally located.

A short briefing about the trek, maps handed out and Kathmandu orientation. Sanjeev had the group introduce themselves to each other along with a little bit of background. It was a surprise to ex-Marine and myself to find that more than half of our group had never trekked before. This was a once-in-a-lifetime trip for them and they made a concerted effort to get in shape by exercising rigorously. One person even stopped smoking to prepare. There were four married couples, including MTS’s Senior Accountant Pam and her husband, John, and a few other women traveling on their own.

After that, ex-Marine who is very sensitive to altitude sickness, instantly becomes nauseous (his usual symptom), and took to his bed. I left him there (yes, I’m heartless) and spent the entire morning wandering the streets and going through almost every, single shop.

One of my favorite pastimes is just walking into any shop that catches my eye…pointing to objects and learning a little about their history…what the objects are…how they were used, etc. One shop had a collector of differently designed utensils used in churning butter and I learned a lot from him. You don’t have to buy and it’s a wonderful way to interact with the locals while gaining new knowledge.

Lots of Naga jewelry (a primative group of tribes in the extreme East of India and West of Myanmar)…wooden chests, masks, and so much more. Even newly-made silver earrings sold for only $1-2 US. Judging by the array of different items I saw, there would be lots shopping to do when returning at the end of the trek.
Durbur Square had many temples, the remains of an ancient palace and a intricate Sun Gate…a gilded cooper gate crafted in the 1700′s.

Durbar Square, Kathmandu, Nepal
The Thamel District is the older area of the city, close to our hotel, filled with shops selling: custom-made t-shirts, tailors (i bought a pair of ready-made capris for $1.50), jewelry, antiques; most of Kathmandu’s restaurants; trekking companies…and the street ran for blocks into Durbur Square. Exhausting!

Since we had previously spent several days touring Kathmandu, ex-Marine and I skipped the included, formal group tour the next day. They visited Bhaktapur and other sights around Kathmandu. Some even took a taxi to the city of Patan, not too far away.

Lukla was our destination tomorrow along with the first Himalayan glimpses….