Pumori Climbing Expedition Dispatch

October 8, 2009 – Arrival in Kathmandu

This is Leila Silveira reporting from Kathmandu. I just landed on the Thai Airlines flight from Bangkok together with Charles and Mike, who are part of our Pumori trek and expedition this fall.

It was the usual confusion at the airport but being well prepared, the 3 of us zoomed through immigration and customs in less than 30 minutes with our 19 duffel bags.

Our guide, Ganesh, was waiting for us and before we knew it we were out of the airport and driving through Kathmandu to our hotel, the Yak and Yeti. We left so quickly that we almost missed Ang Temba, our Sirdar and Berg adventures Operations Manager, who met us as we were leaving.

It is always a pleasure to be back in Nepal and this is a country that I really love, but I can’t help noticing the surprised look on Mike and Charles faces as we drove through Kathmandu crazy traffic. It is quite hectic with motorbikes, bikes, cows, cars, buses, rickshaws. It’s a real assault on the senses. The interesting thing is how all the vehicles seem to drive completely out of control yet in a strange poetic harmony.

We finally made it to our hotel which is a 5 star oasis right by Thamel, the Kathmandu shopping district. We checked in and were happy to meet with our film crew, Lovinder, Paul, Ken and David, who arrived a couple of days early to get some footage of this beautiful city. The expedition sponsor Hanesbrands brought in the film crew to document the trek.

We took the afternoon off to relax and get settled and later got together for dinner at the Famous Fire and Ice Restaurant. Mike, Charles and I arrived early and were joined by the film crew. As usual, the pizza was wonderful!

After dinner I decided to take Mika and Charles on a quick tour around Thamel and introduced them to my favorite program, a Thai foot massage. They had never had one before, so we all sat down for a relaxing massage. After the massage we decided to take a taxi back to the hotel and finished our first day with style in the comfort of our hotel.

Jamie, Todd, Sara and Scott were scheduled to arrive from Hong Kong at 10:30 PM, so the film crew went to the airport together with Wongchu and Ganesh to pick them up and film their arrival. The flight ended up arriving late but they got great coverage of them inside customs and arriving at our hotel.

So here we are, the team is finally together and we all arrived with our luggage, not a single piece lost. We are ready for our adventure!