I’m going to attempt to post once each day during this trip, and see how that goes.

Today, in a slightly long day, I flew from Wellington to Auckland to Singapore to Kathmandu.

After a hot bus ride and a much needed shower, we spent a little bit of time wandering around Kathmandu getting some groceries and having a little bit of a look-see.

We’re all staying at Hotel Manang.  It has pretty good power and free Wifi so it makes posting this pretty easy and painless from the laptop.  A lot of my other posts will most likely be sent from my cellphone and might be a bit more basic.

I also managed to acquire a SIM card for 2000 rupees (about NZ$20), which includes 150 rupees of credit, in theory.  I was probably overcharged.  I haven’t had a chance or need to try it yet.  Maybe tomorrow.  It should make Internet access much cheaper than roaming.

We went to a nice group dinner at some mystery location.  The food was good and it was nice to meet and talk to all of the lead guides for the trek, runs, climb and overall group.  It’s sounding like a potentially quite fun trip.  I’m a little concerned about my Glandular Fever and how it might affect my speed and ability to keep up with everybody else.  It’s getting better though, so fingers crossed…

Thing I Liked Most Today

The thing I liked most today was the free phone charging station at Singapore Airport.

It’s like a wall of post-office box sized compartments, each for different phone types.  You just plug your phone in, lock the door and take the key.  No people or money involved.

Another pretty cool thing is the 3D TVs that don’t require special glasses to view.  They’re not quite perfect, so the glasses ones are a lot better, but it’s still pretty impressive.

Power/Internet

I’m going to post about the power and Internet access along the route so other poor travellers don’t need to be as puzzled as me and try to fill the gaps from a few meager comments online.

Both are pretty good at the Manang.  The power points are worthy of some comments though.  I will update on these next time.

Mains power typically runs for about 22 hours out of 24 at this time of year and less at other times.