Shanghai'd

We have arrived safely in Kathmandu, where the power goes off intermittently throughout the day. Makes you appreciate the Chinese infrastructure. First impression is that Kathmandu is much closer to India (culturally as well as geographically) than China. The narrow, unmarked streets are lined with kashmir scarf shops, trekking companies and backpacker cafes.

The trip so far has, as expected, not been without it's ... shall we say, challenges? First, the taxi van that was supposed to take us and our bikes to the Shanghai airport didn't show. We hurridly stuff our bike boxes in the trunk of two regular cabs and were on our way. Since you cannot fly from Shanghai directly to Nepal, our route took us first to an overnight in Chengdu than morning flight to Lhasa, Tibet, and finally Kathmandu.

Troubling trip update: our local guide team is less than confident about our prospects of securing China visa for the rest of the group. Laurel and I all obviously already covered, but they dont' seem to understand that. In addition, there is worrying news that the Chinese embassy in Nepal may be closed for the October holiday. Best case, we head to Tibet as planned on Tuesday. Worst case, our Tibetan adventure turns into a Nepalese one. Fingers crossed for now. Hopefully more to come soon.