We arrived in Kathmandu yesterday (Wednesday) in the early afternoon. Then we did what most visitors do at foreign airports and wasted time trying to figure out which was the correct immigration line. Luckily it didn’t take us too long and before we knew it we were through immigration.

We then went through another “security” line before we could enter baggage claim, although it didn’t appear that anyone was actually looking at our carry-on bags as they went through the scanner. All of our large duffels arrived and we quickly found our Alpine Ascents driver to take us to our hotel – the Yak & Yeti. It is difficult to describe what the traffic is like here in Kathmandu without you actually seeing it for yourselves, but there are no lights, no lane lines, no obvious street signs, everyone is driving in all directions, cows are hanging out in the middle of the road and pedestrians are weaving themselves through traffic to cross the street. It’s like organized chaos. There are many electrical lines that are bundled up into a big, scary knotted mess. There is also an unfortunate haze of pollution hanging over the city. With all that said, the Nepalese people are very nice and helpful and the city has a certain beauty to it with splashes of bright colors everywhere.

Since we arrived a day earlier than some of our team (in order to mitigate any flight delays), Alpine Ascents organized for us to go on a tour today with two other climbers in our group that also arrived early. We visited a Buddhist shrine, Swayambunath Stupa, also called the Monkey Temple. We had to climb 365 steps to get to the shrine, but the views and sights along the way were quite something. We also visited the Great Boudha Stupa, a World Heritage Site.

We are just relaxing and hydrating the rest of today, as our official itinerary begins tomorrow morning with breakfast and gear check.