The idea to write something about the modern society in Nepal started when we were driving towards the airport for our flight to Lukla. The traffic in Nepal can be very dangerous, but on the other hand it seemed very efficient. As long as everybody is walking, cycling, driving or making whatever move in the same direction, no one has to wait for another. And although no one takes notice of them, Kathmandu has some very modern traffic lights that count down the seconds and even have animated red and green lights.

The main tourist area (Thamel) is modern in its own way. The streets are as crowded as a busy shopping street in the main center of a big city. And why bother driving around the center if, helped by the sound of your horn, you can easily drive through that same street with 50 km/h? After all, the fastest way from A to B is still a straight line.

The security check at the airport was very customer-friendly. They asked me “Do you have a bomb, a knife or a lighter in your backpack?”. A simple “no, sir” from my side was enough to let me through. Having my two walking sticks with me didn't look suspicious to them. They didn't even bother to ask those questions to Marloes. The fact that the 9/11 attackers were all men proves they are right regarding the thought that women cannot be terrorists. But don't get fooled by the idea that it's better in Europe; I accidentally left a pair of scissors in my hand luggage at Schiphol. I clearly saw the shape of the scissors on the monitor of the X-ray machine, but the security officers didn't ...

We met our porter in Lukla after we got off the plane. During one of the last evenings we had a television in the central dining room, and he said he liked to watch soap series. Instead of one episode of 25 minutes per day, the Nepali TV shows one full series of 3 hours, but once per week. So we were in the lucky position to be able to watch one complete series of a very badly made soap (in Hindi); completely different story lines through each other, only one camera viewpoint for a whole scene and over-dramatised acting. Another evening there was no running water, at 3900 m. , but there was internet and a television. All the porters and guides from the different trekkers were watching with great interest...Animal Planet, in English (which many porters don't understand!).

It was interesting to see that both our porter and our guide had a mobile phone. On most days our porter walked much faster than we did (he was very happy he only had to carry one backpack of a little over 15 kg.), and when we finally arrived at the meeting point we could hear the sound of another game of 'Snake' he'd lost. It was truly interesting to realize that the closest place where one can see a car/bus, was on four days walking from the village where we landed, but a lot of people have a mobile phone. Our guide even had his own e-mail address, although he has to walk for four hours (one way) to get to a place where he can read his mail. At home he doesn't even have electricity and uses open fire to cook his meal (well, his wife does that).

Something else we found funny to see was that the Crocs have also made their entry to Nepal. Maybe you know them, the colourful, plastic sandals which were a great hit last summer. Women wear them here under their traditional dress.

Regarding food: during the trekking we had a choice from several dishes to eat at lunch and dinner. Mostly it's rice or noodles with vegetables and egg. The traditional dish is Dahl Baat, and eaten every day by the porters and guides. It's sticky rice with vegetables. They cook on a fire oven (burned with wood or Yak “pancakes” (Yak shit), but they also use a rice cooker, quite modern, to have the rice ready in short time.