Ready to roll

This time last year ABC stood for Annapurna Base Camp. According to the front page story in the Kathmandu Post today it now stands for "Asian Brown Cloud" - which is reportedly what this place is suffering from at the moment. As far as I am concerned this is just another name for pollution. Apparently there has been no rainfall in the city here for 5 months; so it is not much wonder that the place is dry and dusty and that this is compounded by emissions of various sorts. Lots of people, both locals and tourists, are going around with breathing masks. Definitely time to get out and head for the hills I reckon! As predicted I've had an expensive day, but I'm happy with my new rucksack, down jacket and outer jacket as well as a few other things - like replacements for the iodine tablets I left at home.
Lillian and I had another pretty good meeting with Chuda this morning - this time at his home here, where he and his wife were extremely hospitable. They live in a rather unusual "oasis" in the city, adjacent to the fisheries ministry and its varous experimental fishponds. There is now a small but useful sum in the bank account we have set up for the WDT trust and school - but we will wait till after my trek to decide exactly what to do with this. There are so many needs! Let me know if you would like to add to it in the meantime.
Tomorrow I'll be up at 5:30 for an early flight to Lukla together wih Dharma for the start of our Everest trek. These flights are notoriously unreliable; so I just hope we don't end up hanging around the airport for hours (as happened to yesterday's travellers).