March 26, 2012.

Left the Railay Bay Resort after lunch for a long tail boat ride to Ao Rang, where we will get a mini van to take us to Krabi and then wait until 6:30PM for a bus to take us to Suratthai for the 12 hour train ride to Bangkok. We have booked sleepers on the trail, have upper sleepers, but are very comfortable and had a good nights sleep.  Arrived at the train station and then took a tuk tuk to the rapid  transit station to take the express to the airport and the hotel where we are staying..  Very nice hotel in the grounds of the airport and just a few hundred meters to walk to the airport area itself.   We spent the afternoon at the airport as it has the nearest post office and we had parcels to send home.  

March 28, 2012.

Off to the airport at 6:30AM , you definitely have to be here 2 hours ahead of time to get through the line up for check in, customs, security and then again security when you get to the departure area.  The airport has very good signage but is very large and busy so do arrive early.  

We are flying Air India to Kathmandu via New Delhi where we change planes.  The service is very good, even have a person in Delhi to direct us to our next flight.  The food on both legs of the flight was so of the best  airline food I have ever had.  NO EXTRA CHARGE.  The first flight was four hours and the second was !.5 hours. 

Arrived in Kathmandu, off the plane onto a bus which takes you to the arrival area where you fill out visa forms, you need a passport photo and $ 100.00 US for a visa, that is for a 90 day visa which I have to have because I will be in and out of Nepal for over 30 days.  For visa for 30 days it only cost $ 40.00 US.  Then you are out of the airport and get the shuttle to you hotel.   

The trip from the airport is a bit hectic  with all the traffic and there does not seen to be any traffic rules here, and the roads are not well maintained but we did arrive at our hotel and the trip was very interesting.  We passed by the area where the cremations are done, and like most emerging countries there is a lot of garbage along the roads into the city.  Inside the city it's self they are trying to clean up but with the amount of plastics and disposable trash it is almost impossible task

The Hotel Ganesh Himal where we are staying in a budget hotel, but is very nice, room with two twin beds, bathroom and is very clean.  The restaurant is very good and the food is not expensive, $1.20 for breakfast and most other meals are about $ 2.50 to $ 4.00 depending what you order.  There us a garden at the back of the hotel and this is were we eat our meals.   The temperature here is in the mid twenties but it does get cool in the evening. Our first day but the time we arrived and got settled was late in the afternoon so we just had dinner and went to bed early.  They say you must rest the first day due to the altitude.