Nothing is permanent in this wicked world, not even your troubles. Charlie Chaplin (Seen at Dehli airport)

Okay, inevitably as I experience a different culture and climate, I start to notice many things; some subtle, some stark. So an early thing noticed here at the Delhi airport and reinforced when finally boarding the smallish Jet Airways 737, those folks with palpable BO have an easily identifiable flavor about them. Can you guess what it might be? Funny…

Somehow I scored “business class” which is suspiciously identical to Alaskaair first class; considering they are the same planes and all. MVP Gold provides the occasional unexpected perk! And I have a window seat so should have a view of KTM on arrival. Was already offered a very interesting juice; fresh green mango juice spiced with a curry-ish flavor. Pretty good!

Speaking of irregular time zones, I recall Sri Lanka which had a 30 minute offset instead of a full hour. Stranger still is Nepal; when it is 5pm in Alaska, it is 645am in Nepal; a 45 minute offset!

I tried to install a weather widget on my blog page on the right side; can’t tell if it’s working from my iPhone; so let me say that while Kathmandu will be in the mid-80’s, Pokhara now is showing a blistering 106F!!! We will be cycling there in the second week. I’ve never ridden in anything quite that hot… Pokhara is closer to 2000′ elevation compared to Kathmandu closer to 4000′; hence the dif.

So we were delayed over two hours leaving Delhi due to weather ceiling; eventually took off and entered this huge right-hand circling pattern somewhere near Nepal for the next 45 minutes. Weird! But you can clearly see the Himalayan Range; extraordinarily beautiful and stunning; but honestly not unlike what we see in parts of Alaska from the air regularly. There is a thick grayish haze as far as the eye can see in every direction below us; I suspect we’re circling waiting for that to suddenly clear… doesn’t seem likely… If we ever make a turn left, I think that will mean we’re heading into KTM.

Left turn and seriously, we’re gonna land around here??? This pilot is trying to thread a needle in a valley with mountains all around in this haze? Holy shit! I hope he’s got good radar!

Made it, though a pretty sketchy approach and landing! Much larger city than I expected! And bonus! My bag arrived with me! That’s always a bit of a surprise! Ox (the Nepalese guide) and his sidekick Suneel met me at the airport and we drove to the very spartan Hotel Manang! No air con, no wifi, but very nice people! The view from my room…

Just kidding! The actual view from my room…

I’m amazingly coherent for literally 42 hours of travel time! It’s hot to me here though, but absolutely nobody over the age of ten is wearing shorts!!! Being the culturally sensitive guy I usually am, I suppose I will follow suit. First on the agenda, a shower!!! The group meets tonight at 7pm for dinner; only four of us in this group, which should be fantastic! As always, happy to be alive and very fortunate to be able to take this, my 11th cycling trip in Asia!