20/4/2026
Our trip starts in Baldivis, where after 10 years on the road we spent last night. Spent they day slowly getting ready so that at about 19.20 we hopped on the bus to tae us to Warnbro Station where we sat for 1/2hr as they cleared a train that had broken down ahead of us. We got to the airport at about 21.30, cost $0. Why do people spend exhorbitent amounts of money getting to the airport when you can do it for free? Our flight is with Malaysian Airlines which has an automated checkin system that doesn’t work well. Our flight left at 2.10 headed for Kuala Lumpur. The food wasn’t as good as we’ve had on recent trips and the entertainment wasn’t all that interesting so I surprised myself by managing to nod off.
21/4
We had a quick turn around to get on to our flight to Kathmandu where coming to land you can see the high Himalayas off to the north, possibly one of them was Mt Everest, but there was some cloud around to. confuse which mountain was which. We sank into the smog of Kathmandu arriving about 12.00. We met some fellow Trip-a-dealers in the arrivals hall, but there was no one to meet us. We stood around for a while but nothing happened to I went to see someone who said the greeters have to wait outside the building, and there they were. Bit confusing. We were soon on our way to the Landmark Hotel and up to our room on the 7th floor with a nice view, spacious and modern. A quick turn around saw us back out on the street heading for the Bagmati River. It was quickly evident why Kathmandu is so polluted, the city is surrounded by hills and is chockers full of traffic. The city has an Indian feel to it, chaotic, unplanned, dirty, noisy, etc. etc. I added city birds like Rock Dove, Common Myna and House Sparrow easily on my stroll down the crowded footpaths, risking life and limb to cross busy roads. I found my way down to the river and wasn’t surprised to find a rubbish filled sewer, the smell being strong enough to taste it. My first little ooh that’s not too bad was a Black Drongo, then Barn Swallow, followed by House Swift, Red-whiskered Bulbul, Collared Dove, Red-vented Bulbul and lastly White-browed Wagtail. I made my way back to the hotel and found a Magpie Robin just in front of the hotel. Other birds were Eurasian Tree Sparrow, House Crow, Large-billed Crow, Black Kite, Indian Pond Heron and Alexandrine Parakeet. Up to the room for a bit of a rest then we headed out to the Nepalaya Hotel which has a roof top restaurant with good reviews. Bev had the sizzling chicken which was nice, I had the Nepalese roast chicken which was in fact fried chicken and nothing to rave about. We bot had mocktails which on a quite warm evening were very refreshing Bev had her usual Virgin colada, I tried a Virgin Mojita which is lime, lemonade and mint. By the time we got back to the hotel it was crash time.
22/4
I went out like a light last night, and slept reasonably well. Breakfast was at 7.15 and was pretty good. We met our tour leader Kamal, who apart form the usual unimpressive hard sell of the optional tours was good, being both knowledgeable and helpful. We had a large bus for the 20 of us which on the crampted streets of the city was propbably not the wisest of vehicles, but he got us to the Monkey Temple with a view down the smog filled valley and the huge stuppa with supposebly the artifacts of Bhudda. From there we went to Durbar square which is on the old trade route between India and Tibet and is lined with old temples which have all had to be rebuilt after the huge earthquake of the 1930’s. The first stop was to see the Kumali, a 2yo girl who is supposed to be able to bless all who see her as she appears at a window in an ancient building for about a minute, then we meandered down the old road admiring the restored ancient buildings. We went to the old palace where some of us climbed the nine storey tower for another view of the smoggy city. It was so thick today that the surrounding hills were not visible. Back on the bus to the Orient Restaurant for lunch. I had momos (dumplings) which were quite yummy if just a little beyond my comfort zone for spiciness. All this too so long that I missed my chance to go see the Community forest a few kilometres to the north of us, since it closed at 17.00, so we sat in the room until near dark when we ventured out to check out the shops. We got our fidge magnet and a mandala painting. The only new bird today was a Common Tailorbird which I spotted whilst Kamal was giving his introdutory monologue out the front of the hotel in the morning.
23/4
It’s 5.30 and a group of 10 of us are in the foyer of the hotel, soon we’re in a minibus driving through the empty streets heading for the airport, we filter through the domestic security to gate 5 to board a Bhudda Airlines plane. We’re a bit late heading out to the plane, but there was no guarantee that we would fly. We file into the plane, I’ve got a bad seat on the ATR 72-500 with it being right next to the propeller at 5A. It’s also small and a bit opaque, but that’s my lot. There’s a delay for 20min and then another delay, I’m getting nervous, are we going to get airbourne or is it going to get cancelled at the last minute. It’s 7.00 when the engines start up and we are soon sailing up through the smog into a bright sunny sky and heading NE-ish. The first mounatin we pass to the south of is Langtang, we slowly head east ticking off some of the highest mountains in the world, and then the last one is the biggest of them all, Mt Everest. Being a commercial plane we can’t get that close to the mountain, but we got a clear view of it for the rather exhorbitant price of US$490, then we turn tail and retrace our steps back to the hotel for a quick breaky, grab our stuff from the room and at about 10.00 we headed slowly slowly out of Kathmandu, down the highway following the Trishuli River. We stopped twice, once at a servo near the river where I didn’t find anything new, then at Kurintar Resort for lunch where I had Sandheko Chicken which was again just a bit too spicy for me, but not deadly. I found Himalayan Bulbul and Bank Myna as new. We went for sundown at the confluence of the two Rapti Rivers. We had picked up Andre our wildlife guide so we stood on the bank ticking off Indian Pied Starling, Chestnut-rumped Starling, Pied Bushchat, Lesser Adjutant, Asian Openbill, White-breasted Waterhen, River Lapwing, Oriental Darter, Intermediate Egret, Little Egret, Striated Heron, Greenshank, Paddyfield Pipit, Cinnamon Bittern, Small Pratincole and Pied Kingfisher. None of which are new for me. We got to the Landmark Hotel a bit before 17.00, dropped our stuff in the room and went to see a performance of a local dance troup perform a number of local dances including a fire dance with the floodlights turned off. We had a late dinner at the restaurant where I had the worst sweet and sour chicken ever, it was neither sweet nor sour, and had coriander, I’m one of those that doesn’t like coriander, ah well, I was hungry so I ate it. By now it was bed time already.