Despite having pre-packed all my gear several times, I had last minute changes of plan. The small rucsac I was planning to use for hand-luggage got ditched in favour of a small wheelie suitcase on the grounds that it would provide better protection for my camera. This also meant that my lenses could come out of the hold luggage and be safer in hand luggage.

The trip to Heathrow was quick and uneventful, bag check in and Security were unexciting and the flights to Kathmandu via Mumbai without great excitement. The food served by the Airline (Jet Airlines) was below average in my opinion and the movie selection, pretty poor so I was glad to step off the plane at Kathmandu, the start of the real adventure.

Kathmandu is five hours and forty five minutes ahead of the UK, which is weird. My watch picks up its time from my phone so I had to turn that on to get a signal, which of course immediately bombarded me with texts and emails, all of which of course are charged at some astronomical rate. Nepalese immigration started the real fun. For those of us who had the foresight to obtain a Visa we were through very quickly. Those that hadn't, well we waited outside in the parking area for almost two hours before they finally emerged! Never ever ever go to Nepal without a Visa, it's just not worth it.

Finally we left the chaos of Kathmandu Airport. Oh yes, there was an out-going scanner at the airport, presumably checking for stolen airline cutlery! On the coach through Kathmandu was amazing. It was utter chaos with cars and motorbikes everywhere, some bikes had whole families on board. The hotel took about 25 minutes and seemed to be right in the city but somehow was peaceful and quiet when we arrived.

Check in was quick and easy and we were shown to our rooms which were equally nice. We met for a quick welcome 'Everest' beer then off for a shower and sort out. RV at 5pm for briefing about the trip which included the news that we were limited to 10kg for main bag and 5kg for hand luggage - I had no chance! Back to the room for a rethink, although I reckoned I was already as compact as I could be. I did manage to ditch a few things, including my goodie-bar collection, evening tracksters and one tub of talcum powder. Time will tell if it was a good idea or not.

Dinner was 6:30pm and we all had the buffet which was nice but more expensive than I had expected being Re1,600. Mind you, a couple of Everest beers were Re1,400. This is not a cheap hotel. For the record, at the time of the trip there were Re150 to the pound Sterling and Re115 to the Dollar.

After dinner, more faff and weighing on some borrowed scales - 18kg was the best I could manage, it would have to do. Bed by 9pm as we had a 4am start.

As a footnote: Kathmandu is very warm at this time of year, Shorts and T-Shirts can easily be worn in the day but maybe a jacket/trousers after dark.