The adventure has begun!
We are now in Kathmandu in Nepal. It feels great to be in motion! We got lots of things to do so it will be two busy days before we leave to Tibet. We are looking for food, a and lots of other small things.
The town is very calm, we don't see any Maoist activities and there are very few tourists in town. Even Tamel is fairly deserted. Pretty much the only foreigners we meet are climbers.
Lots of talk about how this climbing season will be; will there be a lot of snow? Will we get a weather window without jet winds on the summit? When will the weather window arrive? The weather window arrived very late last year, is that a sign that the weather window will arrive late this year too or was last year an exceptional year? How much will the Chinese customs hassle us before we get to pass the border? How many climbers will get caught with non-licensed communication gear?
And of course, one of the biggest questions is: Will there be troubles getting to the Tibetan border due to the Maoist rebels? The Maoist are known to stick to the policy not to attack tourists but it how seems like four Polish trekkers are held captive by the Maoist rebels. They were trekking in the Everest area as ! They were reported missing earlier this week and the Khaleej Times yesterday stated that they were held hostage but that no ransom had been demanded so far. A very bad sign if it turns out to be true. We will keep a low profile and try to stay out of problems.
You feel like you step into a syjunta, not a place full of hard-core extreme climbers...
We feel optimistic and very motivated though, we have been dreaming about this for years!
Photos by Fredrik Schenholm - www.schenholm.se
