First Greetings from Kathmandu

On March 23rd my dream came true. I took off for the project 4-4-8. A mystic approach towards life says that everything is in equilibrium on the whole planet, which I do not doubt much. And if it's true then I will surely accomplish the project.

Troubles and problems started to accumulate before my leaving and it ended up with sleepless nights and lot of stress. The preparations were typically accompanied by many problems that had to be solved and since I had been organizing all of that on my own I also had to cope with them alone. The last problem to arise was the 'Top 10 Chart' one.

For the expedition I decided for a special food that I had been using twice on Mt. McKinley and I found it just great. It's not being imported to Europe so I had to order it from the USA and via my friend living there. The portions and packages had been counted exactly to cover the days I will be spending in the altitude camps on all the four peaks. There were quite a few of them so my friend had to send two parcels but only one came to the Czech Republic. The other one got simply lost on the way and only two days before my departure! So the post office in my hometown of Hustopece and also the post office in the States started the search but nothing was revealed throughout the next 24 hours. Then suddenly, one day prior to the departure, the telephone rang and a lady from the Hustopece post office told me that the other parcel was tracked and found to be in the entrepot in Prague. Luckily, my co-climber for the first two peaks, Jan Matyasek, was able to recover it and brought it with him for our take off. While picking up the parcel he was told that both of them came on the same day but nobody was able to say why only one of them was sent through. Incredible. So, many thanks fly to the Hustopece post office.

As mentioned, Jan is a fellow climber on this expedition and the two mountains we will climb together are Shisha Pangma and Cho Oyu. The third mountaineer 'on board' is Jiri Jakubec who will climb the Shisha Pangma and then will return home. All three of us landed on the Lahore Airport in Kathmandu at about 10 am on March 24. Since our take off all went as it should. Setting a foot in Kathmandu felt like coming to my second home. Same people at the airport, same porters, and even the same bus driver... In hotel Marshayngdi, which has been serving as my accommodation camp for the past six years, the staff was greeting me with big smiles and saying "So, back again?". It feels just great to be here. And I know that if I was taken here blindfold I could tell I'm in Kathmandu just by the nose due to its very specific scent. In fact, all of the places around the world, and especially each continent, have their own specific scent. So for example, I couldn't make a mistake with Santiago de Chile.

Suddenly, Kathmandu feels to be a bit different. I can't tell if it's due to the scope of my expedition or because of the close proximity of the highest mountains in the world. We went to the narrow streets and in the little shops we purchased the ropes for fixing and also few meters of a dynamic rope for the fixing between each of us. The shop owners say there are many tourists around but that doesn't seem to be true. Perhaps they believe the word will spread around and people will start to consider Kathmandu safe again for (tourist) visiting. The riots that ended only recently took the toll on the number of tourists coming. But the important thing is that it's been truly quiet here and strain as well. Tomorrow on the 25th we will pack up the things and the day after we shall be leaving for the Chinese border. Both Shisha Pangma and Cho Oyu are in Tibet which is a part of China. The time zone here is GMT +5:45 hrs.

Wishing you a nice day from Kathmandu,

Miro, Jan and Jiri