First few days in Kathmandu (March 15th - March 16 th) Here I am in Kathmandu. Enough places to check e-mail and get on the Internet. A lot has happened since I arrived here yesterday. The flight was allright. No big delays and I made the transfer in Vienna easily. I was actually surprised how full the airplane was. I had expected it to be completely emtpy (due to the Maoist trouble in Nepal). But it was quite full. I did have two seats to myself, so had quite a good night of sleep. I woke up when we were over some kind of Indian desert. I felt happy I was heading to a greener place. After arrival in kathmandu on a pretty deserted airport, luckily, I didn't have to wait in line for customs and my bag pack (with everything in it I would need in two months) was there as well! Then it was out into the crazy world of taxi's. I was lured into going to some guy's guest house (I was prepared for this, but somehow it happened). No worries though, he was nice enough and the taxi driver told me all about the tourist situation (70% less than last year). After arrival in the guest house, I decided not to stay there, but head over to the Tibet Peace Guest House where Marcel and Riet (climbing buddy, and Marcel is her boyfriend) were staying. Everywhere, people asking you to buy stuff from them! Gets a bit irritating after a while, but you learn not to start a conversation with someone if you don't want to buy anything (it gets harder to say 'NO' after you've been talking with them for a while). When I arrived in the guest house, Riet and Marcel were out. I spent most of the afternoon sitting in the sun (a lovely 25 degrees) and reading a book. I went out into town (the tourist section, called Thamel) and got lost every time. Luckily I found my way back as well. Kathmandu is a really nice city, just lots of people everywhere and I saw my first cow in the middle of the road, just lying there. The guest house is really nice. I have my own room plus shower and toilet (normal one, it doesn't flush very well though) for 250 rupees (about 3.5 Euro's). No bugs (flies/mosquitos/cockroaches) or anything. jippie! At about 7 pm Riet and Marcel got in. We went out to dinner. Guess what I had for my first diner:...................................pizza. I just couldn't resist (don't worry, I had some momo's (from tibet) the next day, so I am adapting). Marcel had a sandwich and ate the coleslaw that came with it. Riet had some bites of it too! Bad choice cause they were stuck in the guest house  (running back and forth to the toilet) the next day. The rest of the diner was very nice. We were on a roof top and could see out all over the city. I started feeling at home. Next day (today, saturday March 16th). Riet and Marcel were sick in bed, so I toured the city by myself (with lots of help from the lonely planet). I visited durbar square (main square with many many temples) where I succesfully slipped past the security guards (which was soooooo easy) so I didn't have to pay the entrance fee! Yes, I'm turning into a real budget traveller now. You don't notice anything here about the Maoist situation. I feel just as safe as in Amsterdam. I did feel a bit strange walking the streets by myself with hardly any tourists around (especially when you're outside of the main tourist area). After a while I got used to it though. The people are really used to the tourists. Around noon I met up with three Australians: Parker (who I had been e-mailing with), Cedric (a doctor, so everybody worrying about my health, no need to worry anymore, I'm in good hands) and Avril (his girlfriend). We made plans for our trip to Everest. Really nice people, so that worked out well. There are probably a few more people joining us (one german who was supposed to go with others, but decided our fitness level fitted him more). I'm really looking forward to the trip. Tomorrow we'll get some extra stuff we need (some shops are closed here on Saturday) and we plan to leave on Monday. First we'll take the bus to a town called Jiri, and after that, we'll hike up and down the vallees until we reach lukla. From there, we trek up towards Everest. From April 2-6 a nation wide strike will take place. This means that everything (all transportation at least) shuts down because people are afraid they get attacked if they don't shut down. I will be up in the Everest Region then anyway and I'll fly back from lukla after the strike is over (anywhere between the 6th and the 10th of April -> that's when I'll update the site again). Hope you're all enjoying reading about my trip. It still feels super! Next update won't be as detailed (I'll have to cover 3 weeks)