johansvennung(臺灣)

I spent the last days of my vacation in Taipei.
I went to Guting nightmarket (or a market near by)

They had alot ot Thai restaurants...it was nice...

I found mickey mouse watches

They were big, just like i want mine, but no mickey mouse arms...

They also offered some strange knife massage nearby...

I ended the day by watching "Sanctum" that was in 3D.

Next day I ate breakfast at IKEA...

Then I took the bus up to YangmingShan national park...it was alot of traffic, it took more than 1 hour and the traffic was still for about 30 minutes...

Many scooters was filling the roads, poluting the air..

At the national park there were cherry blossom...

And many tais was here to see it, it is a long weekend now, due to some historical thing that happend, and made monday a holliday...

The trees here looked almost like home at my parents house (enlightened)

They also had nice fountains.

After this I went to an All-you-can-eat hotpot

I started with icecream as usual, they had many interesting flavours
After this I went to a bar with some friends who lives in sweden.

The day after I ate breakfat at a place near the taipei main station, which was famous for their waffles...

I saw an interesting add doll for some medicine.

Then I went ti Ximen...they have alot of stores...

There I saw some cool motocycles...they reminded me of them I saw in Singapore...many people were there taking photos of them.
After this I went back to Hsinchu, tomorrow is school.

Today I said goodbye to my group member...who continued to Thailand...
I showed a part of Hsinchu, then we took High speed rail to the airport. The free shuttle bus was really slow, so we missed the first train, but we had an open ticket so we just needed to wait another half hour...on the way back from the airport the HSR was faster though...
I tried my new shoes...

Batman to the left and Superman to the right...(when im wearing them)

This blur image shows my mickey mouse watch...the clock hands is mickeys...just like it should be, no batteries, it is mechanic driven.

I wear shorts...it is like 20-25 degs some times..and still the tais use winter jackets...it is fun.

"Emergency Door Cock"?!?
Who wanna pull that one? (Tai's seem to enjoy every single moment, even when things are on fire)
I also handed in my 14 boarding passes to the secretary at my program that she wanted, i needed to paste them on 2 A4 papers.
I ended my day by hanging out at a birthday party, that continued to the DJ club...I did not have any good music to play, so i let other ppl do the DJ-ing...

It was alot of people, mostly latinos...

I have my group friend in taiwan today.
I was having some courses, but since it is add and drop I just attended shortly, I will decide which ones to take next week.
The NCTU course system seems weird, since I cannot enter it, and I am not signed up for any courses according to the portal...even though I signed up for all courses last time i loged in...why is there always so many errors here?
after class I went to Taipei to Thai airways office, and we got refund for the cancelled ticket (2500 out of 3000 SEK).
Then we went to IKEA...

I ate meat balls drank about 8 cups of soft drink...and bought coffee and chocolate...and some flädersaft...
Then we went to Taipei 101...
I looked for a DC comics store...since I found it in Bangkok by chance...but did not find any in the shopping district at Taipei city hall..
then i took the bus back to hsinchu...

Im happy there were not mokus passengers on the bus...since they might have caused trouble...whatever Mokus means (there are always alot of strange translations here in asia)

Im dealing with courses for spring semester...it is hard. Especially since the course system here in taiwan doesnt care wether you signed up for classes or not, I am still registered on many strange courses i never signed up for....(since i get emails from people who are responsible for the courses)
And I also spent long time try to waive courses (even if the GMBA secretary discriminated me), and still I am signed up on the courses I was told I could waive...
I simply have to accept that tai teachers are inconsistent...so is the administration system :S

The first (and only) day in Chengdu I joined my friends to their hostel, since they were gonna spend the night there...we ate breakfast as a nice hostel...(like top 4 in asia or something on some rank)

Chengdu is like beijing, very nice, not as dirty as taiwan, with all the pollution scooters...

The traffic i rather calm

Traces of sweden...

They also had alot of trees on the roads, which reminded me of beijing...

Mao was at the big square...he liked Sichuan...

This is the big square (not super big but rather big)

We went to a famous park where people were singing, dancing and playing music.

Then we went to a famous tea house, which is where people use to gather in the old good times...

I had some classical green tea...

Later on we went ot Mcdonalds, where due to some bet, i lost my green Tiesto bracelet.

It felt weard, like when i lost my Nijmegen march bracelet, last summer..

This is how a guy who just lost a bracelet looks like...in Chengdu

I also observed that not even in Guangzhou, where I was now, people care about non smoking areas...this was found in a toilet

during my transfer i observed asian logic...put something 8cm lower and it is made for handicaped people...

This is the customs at the airport...they are strange, letting some bring bottles, and some not...

Now it came like a shock, the travel agency and guide told us that we could copy our group visa and leave at different times...(typical logic here, dont know anything, but still just tell some lie)

I was sent here to cancel my visa (yes i missed my flight due to this, or rather postponed it). But I needed to go here and make a single one, which would take 3-4 days they told me...

It was a long queue...
they told me: NO! I need to contact my embassy, no way I could get a new visa...I needed to gather my group, os solve it in beijing..since they embassy homepage was old, and the general concul that they said they had here, left last year. By some reason, my group mate had the same problem at the other side of china...so we decided a time to meet, and had to leave the c9untry togetter...

They people here was not that service minded (as usual in asia), it was expensive and they are often rude...
All due to that our travel agency never told us the rule about the group visa, even if they knew our planse...so stupid...
It was a really expensive experience, since the group people had to cancel their tickets and buy new ones...
Chinese people seldome seem to care about other peoples expenses...even though many people tell me than chinese people only believe in money....it is confuzing

We needed by buy new tickets home...
I finished some chinese whiskey while dealing with the problem...


Not even at the airport they respected the no smoking  signs...it was smoke everywhere...

Snickers bars were 20 yuan each (that is 20 SEK), expensive for beeing china....

On the airplane I tried a beijing beer, tasted like any other kind...

...after some hectic days, i was home, after I arrived, I took the sky train at the taiwan airport, for the first time, it was interesting...

without driver...some guy was just left outside, since he did not have time to catch the car before leaving...

The last night in Lhasa was spent walking around the potala palace...we also saw the nice spotlights enlightening the palace

I tried some typical ibet food after that....tasted like dew


And a dry coconut cake as dessert

During the night, other group members discussed how much tip they should give the guide, some ppl thought nothing others 10% of the trip price which is alot...

During the night a painting fell down on the floor, it was very strangely attached to the wall. The greedy manager accused me, fordcing me to pay it without any evidence...I gues the greed had reached to tibet as well...(the guy on the pic is the greedy manager)

The train station in Lhasa was anyway famous, and in some sense modern.

Alot of space in the perron

And the landscape was the same for a long time...

A little snow and alot of sand

Yaks could be seen at many places, no wonder that meat is so popular here

The worlds highest lake...

Kids was running around in the train (this one had a Pamu jacket, typical chinese style to copy copy)

The Chinese version of Puma...

We had to sleep on the hard seats...

Day 2 the snow disapeared but still tha same landscape.

It was forbidden to smoke, and they had signs and speakers informning, but still asia is a very authority driven country, meaning that people who has the right attitude can do whatever they like...

It took 42 hours from Lhasa to Chengdu (in Sichuan province) so strange that there were so many rumors about the time...

china is a strange country...
now im screwed up, some chinese ppl says something, and others says another thing...
now im in the chinese circle...meaning that different people ordering me to go to different places...
hmm...
i "gillar laget" as swedish ppl use to say.
there is 2 thoung that is good with super bureucratic countries...
1, you know how lucky u r, living where u do (not as bureaucratic)
2, nothing makes u glader than when the problem gets solved...
i will tell more about the last days when i dont need to sneak in to a phone store and borrow internet.
thanx to Oscar btw, a hotel staff who lended me his phone...
guanxi is strong here, meaning that u dont trust people, but if u some how get personal relationship with somebody, then friendship is stronger than ever.

After more than one day in Lhasa you really start to disslike (hate) china. They remind me of israel, in the way they isolate some people, who they dislike. Treating tibetians like cattle many times...
China isolates the tibetians by refusing them passport.
I spoke with a guy who wanted education, and spent 40 days walking to Nepal (illegally), and further on to india to study.

The streets in Lhasa are full of stores (atleast in the center)

Due to political reasons Mcdonalds and pother famous stores had left Tibet, but there are some brands...Tico's is one of them serving chicken hamburgers

This is the center square in Lhasa, soldiers marshing around and around.
Some prayers are sliding on the ground, it looks interesting...
Others are waling clockwise round the temple that is near the square.

This is Potala Palace, super old...and big...the Dalai Lhama lived there when he was welcome here...(you can also see the chinese flag on the top)

people also walk clockwise around this palace...some have sticks in their hands with a chain that they can turn arond...
t
it was a high palace, we needed to go up to enter...

many old people were exhausted after all climbing...it was around 5 degs outside i think...

from the top you could see another big square...

this dark image is a toilet used long time ago...perhaps by some dalai lama

there was a nice lake on the backside of the palace.

kids in this country dont use dipers...instead they have a gap in their pants, so that they can shit whenever and wherever...

Here are some other sliders again..it is comon among the whole population to do this...

After trha palace visit we went to the center square to check some holy places...(2 military groups were patrolling at this time)

Near the temple sliders were going up and down...but on mattresses...

They also had a chimney where they burned some papers...
There were alot of people queuing to enter the temple, tibetians spent about 2 days queuing. There were some strange police there shouting at them...
it was an interesting temple, and many tourist groups were there...

When we were done, we found that the main entrance was closed...sine after 16, no tibetians can enter.only tourists....

It is srtange that so many people always walks arong the building round and round...
(as one can see most people are walking towards the pic)

Around the square, all day long, snipers were on tyhe roof tops...

And soldiers walking with guns...
while we were heading to a restaurant...

I tried Lhasa beer, it is very soft...only 3.3 percent alcohol...i guess it is ok for asians who are more sensitive to these kind of drinks...

I also found some local drink..."champ" or something was the name..tasted like vinagre, or sour cream.

I took a local lime cake for dessert.

Then we went to Potala palace, since we had heard that it would be cool with light spotted on it...but there were no lights..instead we saw other lights near a pond at the square near the palace...

Everywhere we could hear fireworks...and some times even see them..since this was the 15th day after the chinese new year...which is a time to celebrate here in the chinese countries...
The day after we first went to a museum...

The museum deals a little bit about tibets histiry concerning items such as pots, jade and animals...(it is behind the trees...)

Then we went to a monastery (the second largest in tibet).
Some bell rang when we stood at the courtyard...

....and suddently hundreds of munks entered the building in front of us...it was time for prayers...

Just like the temple down town, there were many tibetians queuing to enter another temple, and to pray....
They usually sacrifice melted butter ot cents of the chinese yuan...

After this temple visit we went back to town to a restaurant...it was the last lunch with te group...most people will take the plane back to kathmandu, me and 3 others will go to china by train...
It is the most useless train system in the world they have here (or the info they provide), I still havnt found anyone who knows when i will reach Chengdu in china...which means that i dont dare to buy any flicght ticket back to taiwan...

This is the yard of our hotel, it is nice and old style...

I also managed to finish my Bhutan Whisky that was leaking in my bag before...it was ok, tasted like a johnny walker
The upcoming 2 days I will spend on a train. At the highest railroad in the world according to rumors...
The only thing that remains to do here is to buy some local stuff that I can waste...as I always do when Im leaving a country...

Today I went to Lhasa (3600 meters a.s.l), Lhasa is the Tibet I heard about, agressive police and militairy present...(big contrast to other cities in Tibet, where I experienced nicer atmosphere)
Another thing about this country (china) is that the currency Yuan is 1 to 1 with SEK, so it is easy to calculate and compare prices.

(spending almost 8 hours in the bus), Leaving Gyante at 8, taking my seat at the back as usual, since there is more space there for the legs...

The landscape is the same...cold dry and rocky...

We passed by one of the largest ponds in Tibet, made for water power...

Since it is cold here, there is is in the pond, it ia subzero every night here....but it is warm in the bus, so i stick with the shorts.

We also passed by a holy mountains, since a goddess lives there...it is about 7190 meters hight...

One cultural thing with china is that they often shit togetter, compare to home, where toilets usually are isolated...

We also passed by some glaciers...

And the second largest lake in Tibet. Tibetians dont eat fish, since they need to kill more individuals then, than it they kill a yak or a cow.

They had some dead animals at a momument near the lake bank.

Before we reached Lhasa we probably stopped 10 times...many people thought it was cold out side, and some are sick due to the high altitude...
I also think that the roads are crap.

But the views are nice.
Our hotel here in Lhasa is really cool. with a nice yard and interesting interior design.

Im now on 4000meters above sea level, in the second largest city in Tibet.

We took the bus from the city to another city, we passed by a water mill where they prepared fluor... it was cool

Then we came to the new city, we checked in at a hotel, ate lunch (yak meat) and went to a monastery (build 1440). it is cold here, around zero degs, im still wearing shorts...it is warm when we are walking, but cold in the shade...

Many Tibetians are playing biljard on the street everywhere. i wonder what they do when it is raining.

They are also selling alot of firecrackers and fireworks, perhaps it is due to that chinese new year recently was, but if feels like it is a common thing here to use...

I ate my second lunch ate a "burger king" look alike...

They had a winning slogan...(typical asian if u ask me)

Then we went back to the hotel and I checked out the travel opportunities in china, where im going next week.. ..
It really six that I cand find out when im going there, since the trvel agent lied, and no one knows here (or rather everyone tells me different)

We are in the second biggest city in Tibet (Shigatse i think the name is)...it is not as strict here as I heard it should be with foreingers etc...but i guess it might be worse in Lhasa....

I tried some butter tea yesterday...it was ok, just like in Bhutan or Mongolia but more butter...(they has only salt in mongolia)

And then I ate some momo (dumplings in tibet), and some meat...it was ok.

I feel that I have use of my chinese here, since they also talk mandarin, even if they prefer their own language...

Today we went to a monastery.

It was a very big one, that famous buddhists use to visit...

At the entrance they sold butter. Many people bought it to sacrifice inside the temple.
The group was informed that we could not take pictures inside the temple.


A long queue of pilgrims was also waiting to enter the temple

After some hours, walking around in the monastery, we were suppos to walk to an old market. We took a way around themonastery, since buddhists always walks clockwise (even if i prefer counter clockwise). And there were many rolls to spinn, as usual in buddhists context. I spinned almost all of them, it was like over thousands...

The tibet people were professionals, they often used gloves.


They also sold mud cases looking like buddha that people put near the rolls.

We walked towards a fort, that almost looked like the one in Lhasa but not that big..some one told me that we couldnt enter that one.

After a lunch we reached the old market.

They have a different way to deal with meat, and hygene her, compare to sweden, letting the meat be on the pavement.

Later on i tried some local beer. It was Barley beer, that I was told was produced in Tibet. It tased like falcon.

The barley brand also had wine, but it tasked like some juice I tried in Taiwan long time ago, almost like maple sirup. Both had under 3,3 % alcohole, so it was like swedish "folköl".

Concerns of the day: How to get back to taiwan, i cant buy tickets yet (since noone know when i will arrive in chang du)...and school starts soon...

Im in tibet now...china says it belongs to them, as well as taiwan..so in that sense im back home....
the internet here is very fast...that is nice
It feels like bhutan in some sense, since people are very friendly...

At the border to nepal it really felt like i where in china...while further into the country it felt like Arizona.
We reached 5200 above sea level on the road here.
I cant enter facebook here...

This is the group that io travel with...

My forth view of mount everest...some where there in the background.

My guide is there in the front, she told me tibet people dont like to speak chinese...even if i use it once in a while.
"Daxidelek" is hi
"chopra delek" is good morning
"Dou zi chi" is thanx...
"na kela ge kido" is i love you
"kare che song" is whats up?
"kerang mingla kare sing yue" is whats your name?
(useful phrases here)

I always buy local produced beer, wine, whisky or some ohter tstuff in each country io visit...
I emptied my nepal liquir after some hours in the bus.
I found my bhutan whiskey leaking in my bag, so now ineed to empty that one to (empty=drink up)

they have alot of houses reminding me of starwars that opnce was used to communicating...

5th view of mt everest, in the backgroundf behind me posing...

The whole group is taking pic of the  highest moutain, even if u barely can see it...


We passed some places over 5248 meters above ocean level...that is high...

on the road we passed by many militairy and police posts, they checked our passports etc...they also close the border in march paril may, since it tends to be more turbulent with tourist demostrating then, (anniversairy month).

just like in mongolia, there are alot of animals crossing the roads all the time...dogs, cows, cheaps etc...

They also have traffic light count downs here...so nice

In the city that i am now (the second largest) it feels like in beijing...
except for that we are the only tourists here...
this month only 2 tourists groups are in tibet as we were told... that is like 30-40 people...that make taiwan look full of foreigners...

Im on my way to tibet.
It feels good leaving nepal.
I still dont know when i will go to china...since the guy i bought the ticklet from dont know...
I will find out tomorrow, and hopefully be able to buy my ticket back to taiwan soon.
Im worried that i cant attend my first courses the first week, meaning that i must share groups with people who cheat i group works etc...that sux...
and perhaps cant buy the voursbooks...but these are both I-country  problems...
now i just wasted all my nepal rupe, so that i wont have some cash that i cannot use...
c u later...

Im leaving nepal tonight it feels good I get stressed about the people here who only seem to care about money. I get stressed becasue they only seem to care about money all the time. they, like vietnamese people has many tricks to makwe ou pay more, like not giving all the info abuot expenses or other charges...
I spent some time in a garden in kathmandu today.
It was called dream garden...very peaceful in the center of kathmandu

it was bult 1920.

A good motivation to start improve my garden...

Typical evening in kathmandu...totaly dark due to no elelctricity...
The cash here are also grose...

these are a good example of some nepal cash...usually they are moss coloured and filthy..as if they were used since the beginning of 1900....

Just came back from trekking in the mount everest region...

We took a smal propeller airplane.

It seemed to ba a norweigan airplane..

Tai people had been there before...i saw this flag in a breakfast restaurant.

The road from the airport took us to interesting towns...

It was also sand and stone roads


The houses looked like this...they had some blue colour on them...

Since it is a buddhist country, they also had alot of rolls... and decorated houses...

This is the nepali peoples backpack, like a "2000 system" that the swedish militairy use, but older...

This is the backpack in action.

They were buil;ding alot, this is taken from a monastery high up from the path that takes us top Mt Everest... but they use primitive tools.

Second view of Mt Everest

This is a Sherpa, walking one of the dozen bridges that crosses the river from Lukla to Base Camp
The problem was that the travel agency treated us like middle aged americans...meaning that we walked for 3-4 hours per day instead of 8-12 hours per day, which im used to...

We passed by alot of slow asian and american groups...many of them used porters to carry their luggage.

This kind of bridge were very common crossing the river uphills...

We were served locally produced Millet wine at a local pub. it was interesting, tasted like taiwanese rice wine, but not that ocean water characteristic...
To instead of coming near base camp, i just came to a spot where i could see mount everest...
I was also told that i needed a guide...but that was a lie...many people came there by themselves...
Next time i will keep my phase when i go there...

We constantly met Sherpas, they were all carrying heavy load.

Down, far away there are 2 Sherpas carrying one bed each uphills towards Periche, on the path...
Before we went back to Kathmandu we visited a monastery.

It was raining, I could feel that the guide did not want to hike around in the area when it was cold...but it was interesting, even if all the monastries and temples more or less look the same on a local level...
I also heard rescue helicopters several times per day (like 10 times) I dont understand how agencies can allow people who are not fit enough to go there...then charge them about 6000 USD for a helicopter ride...it seems like money, money, money is what drive them to bring whoever to higher altitudes...

yesterday i went to "the tigerst nest"

which is the most holy place for buddhists (according to the guide). some lotus born guy flew there on a tiger and meditated for 3 month. i wanted to buy bhutan whisky and rum (my guide said i couldnt) but i bought it anyway.and he seemed to be wrong. many ppl brought local things with them. the flight from kathmandu was delayed again (due to weather), strange logic that they keep on having airport activiteis on early mornings when it always is foggy at the nepal airport. so time was spent at the lounge. i tried a bhutan whisky i never tried before.it tasted like scottish whisky. i was thinking if it really is so expensive here. 1bottle of whisky 1/2 litre is like 1,3 USD. and the total route would probably cost more in sweden (inc hotel transport and food). given that i use all those facilities.

Guys were playing dart at a nice place at the mountain (there r moutains everywhere in Bhutan), in the top one cam see (according to the guide) the highest peak in bhutan (7300 m), but Lonely planet said it was like the 3rd highest...

They were about to built a super high budha near Trimphu. It seems to be popular...they have similar in thailand, tibet and china.

This penis is a common picture on Bhutan houses, it it a symbol of power.

They adore their king as buddha...almost... pics were found everywhere...

Im now in Bhutan. It is amazing. So untouched - so expensive...
The plane was pretty late...

Still I got my first glance of Mt Everest from the airplane, it was really cool, seeing the highest mountain in the world, seeing Lothse and all the other famous +8000m summits,

The highest summit....(mt everst itself is respectfull), and cool, knowing that next week I will go there trekking...
After some hours flight...the plane landed in Paro (Bhutan) guides and drivers were waiting for all tourist. then we went to a local restaurant,

It tastes like indian food...Bhutanese people rather identify themselves with india than china.

then we went to watch archery (a popular sport here). Due to Chinese new year, the stores are mainly closed. But some were open. It is really a big contrast to Nepal, no sellers no aggressive taxi drivers. Everything is calm and peaceful. And so clean, like Sweden, not like Kathmandu.where the rivers are used as trash storage...
After this we went down hill for a while...

The guide and the driver...passing by a country that seem to be like a fairy tail.

They have monasteries around the country, and temples that are painted white. All houses looks more or less the same, they look like white temples... The country is in the Himalayas, so it is mountains all over the country. We continued to the capital Thimphu, the only capital in the world without a traffic light (according to the guide),

instead they have a police officer directing the traffic all the time (can be seen in the little house in the middle of the intersectio), thus they cdont have any clever count downt like Thailand, Turkey and Taiwan. The country is really influenced by 1- the king, 2 - Buddhism (a really small part of the population is christian). Even the flag reflects the monarchy and the Buddhism...(yellow and orange). When some guy from India entered the country a long time ago, he heard the scream of a dragon, so the country is called "the land of the thunder dragon", and a dragon is on the flag.

When arriving to the city we went to the Kings monastery, and we also saw his house (it is super small). The country is really small, so he seem to be a real local, 31 years old working 100 meters from his house.

This is the governments house just beside the biggest monastery and the kings little house.

These monastery often has one administration part and one munch part...
It is really not that many tourists here, we are alone all the time... people are calm and it is such a contrast to other countries nearby...that i guess everyone who comes here gets amazed...

They also have alot of paintings and buddhas in there...they are all related to the religion...(all these buldings are from 1640, (they were built all over the country...) The country was founded in the beginning of 1600...accoring to our guide..

When a person dies.they raise 108 whie flags, it means luck...
They also use 5 different colours on flags sumbolising the 5 elements...it is exotic.


After that we went to the hotel, it felt like in North Korea for a while, since there is barely any other guests here.

Typical bhutanese food was served in the empty hotel...
chicken, pork, noodles etc...

The dessert was special with "silver paper". I hope it wasnt toxic...

I also found a friend to hello kitty, probably already know, but i never seen it before...

im sitting at a lounge in nepal (kathmandu airport) my flight to Bhutan has been delayed due to weather.

Strange that it is foggy everyday, still they set departure early in the morning...(also when I arrived the flight was delayed due to weather..)

I had a ticket to the VIP lounge, it seems to be open bar due to that i got a business classic ticket. i sat there wondering why they  put flight in the mornings here (asian logic is strange). at least i could log on to internet by my phone.
it is kind of cold here in kathmandu during night.the hotel windows is hard to close, but im still sweating every now and then... it is just like laos a big contrast between the tourist areas and the other parts of kathmandu. the hotel is in the tamel area and no lights can be turned on in the morning (due to the electricity shut down). roads are damaged, which makes it hard for tuk-tuk lookalike bikes to cycle. moutains can be seen in the horizon but it is more like hills than the himalayas we know about no snow on the tops (thus not as spectacular as münich). the city is poor,it looks alot like ruins.and it is super dirty. trash are covering the river and i wonder if they have any kind of environmental concern at all.the tourist area looks like ko sam road in bangkok. however, the "old town" looks like the kathmandu that most peolpe imagine it. people are nice, even though many are trying to fool u by the classic "pretend to help you for free, and then charge you money". but now i will be in bhutan for a couple of days, all inclusive some says. it is expensive to travel there so i surely assume that is will be ok.

Electricity is still working some hours per day...when time turns 18 it is dark.and it feels super late.

You cannot really see mountains fro kathmandu, but if u climb a local hill, you can glance the higher summits in the horizon...

(or from an airplane), one can conclude that is it rather far to the high peaks from kathmandu...

My phone cannot log on to all the "free wifi" that the restaurants offer...so buying tickets etc online is harder here...
Tomorrow it is Bhutan, bybusiness class, (since all the other seats were full).
It is old town on todays schedule in kathmandu.

This is the travel agency...they are tricky, and greedy, and charged overprice...it wan not nice...

the first day at kathmandu a guy from a "tourist organisation" approached, he seemed to be "neutral" but it turned out that he  brought people to his own hotel (but the price was ok). then he gave a travel guy the new commers him as customers..so they all earned alot of money...

btw, this guy (on the pic) is at the highest cast...the sherpas are the lowest...they use cast her in nepal.

the time zone here is GMT = +5.45, thus a little warped compare to the rest of the world.
pics will be uploaded when im at a computer that works...

people here drive motorcycles as tais drive scooters, honda, kawasaki etc is blowing their horns on the small paths of the city. a city that looks like ko san road in bangkok plus a poor city in ruins plus as we think kathmandu should look like (refering to the old town).

Im spending my time in Kathmandu for the moment.
Waiting for take off to Bhutan in days.
Visiting temples.

This one is one of the most famous in kathmandu...

It hurts when I see things like this...people who are careless bout the environment...
When walking on the street...people are on u all the time here, like in south east asia, the are not as bad (greedy an dishonest) as vietnamese people in vietnam, but still. They know all the trix to charge you more.