Yesterday we arrived in Kathmandu. As a kid I thought this was some mythical place like Shang ra La. But it actually has an international airport and several carriers coming in every day. The terminal was actually one of the nicer I have seen in third world countries. You immediately know you are not in the western world however. The lines to get through passport control are long, slow and make no sense. You must buy a visa but they do not take local currency, which would be strange except the government is starving for foreign currency to pay for the weapons they need to fight the Maoist insurgency. Most of the problems have been in areas that we are not going. The Everest region only has one convenient way in an the army maintains strict control over it. The city is small but full of life. There is new construction and signs of growth everywhere you look. Nepal’s economy is based on tourism and mountain climbing so you can buy expensive climbing gear for nickels on the dollar. Had I known this I would have bought some of my last minute stuff here. Our hotel is clean and quaint and the staff is excellent. We spent our free day repacking our gear into bags of travel attire that would stay at the hotel, my high altitude climbing gear that would be brought in on helicopter and yanked directly to base camp and hiking gear that we would need on the trail in. Always decisions but after today we will live with what we decide.