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The route...
Altitude chart by day...
Due to the weather we switched our days 13 & 14.
Day 1 - Flight from Heathrow to Kathmandu via Abu Dhabi
For the first leg I luckily had a spare seat between myself and the rather nervy woman next to me, I'd seen her looking jumpy in departures. Once on the plane she wore a pained expression and a hoody throughout and asked lots of questions of the air hostesses in an urgent tone like "what's that smell"; "what's that noise", etc. Once we were in the air, she hid herself under a number of blankets and that was the last I saw of her.
We stepped from a world of wonderfully comfortable beige on the Etihad airlines flight into the melting pot of Abu Dhabi airport. A great place to be if you want to buy Swiss watches, consumer electronics and powdered milk at high end prices, but a bit of a giant hamster wheel if you don't. Architecturally, it has a great tiled central column, though it does make it feel like an ornate two-tier blancmange mould...
Day 2 - A Nepalese cultural evening in Kathmandu.
We landed in Kathmandu in the late afternoon, most of the passengers didn't speak English or Arabic and rushed to the overhead lockers practically before the front wheel touched the ground, this was met by much yelling from the air hostesses who were still strapped into their seats for landing.
After checking into the Royal Singi Hotel, we all met to experience a Nepalese cultural evening. After a brief introduction to the local rocket fuel - Raksi (a nasty 'wine' drunk from a shallow unglazed clay pot that sticks to your lips as they melt under the affect of the alcohol); we were acquainted with the more palatable Momo's, Newari dancing and Everest Beer. A poor photo of the dancers, but the beer looks beautiful in the candlelight...
