With only two full days in Paris we chose to spend it visiting with our friends D, A and R, eating good food and searching for space invader mosaics that are dotted around this and other international cities (ok, so that wasn’t originally on the list but as a fan of urban art I was overly excited to hear that there is an app that allocates you points for each mosaic spotted as long as it is authentic – determined by a verification following snapping a pic in the app).

The app is called FlashInvaders and it tracks these pesky creatures all over the world, including Kathmandu and Tokyo.. stay tuned. Thanks for the tip Ced!

We stayed close to the Marais district which allowed us to saunter around the narrow streets grabbing lunch and snacks when required. After living so close to this city for many years, its familiarity was welcoming but as per the usual there is always something new to see or eat.

Making use of the hotel WiFi we researched the arrival and visa process for Nepal. After both of us had experienced complex visa applications for India and Nepal through previous travel we expected a possibly unclear and perhaps duplicative process so having some insight ahead of the next days travel set our expections. We were armed with passport photos, contact addresses and USD: we were ready.

Heading to the airport on the Sunday night, we had consolidated our 4 bags to 3 and were ready for the 6 hour flight to Dubai and then an onward 4 hours to Kathmandu.

The flights were fairly uneventful – not much to report apart from the ‘WOW-FI’ at Dubai airport wasn’t the slightest bit ‘WOW’

After bracing ourselves for a chaotic immigration and visa process at Nepal (sorry to be so negative) it was actually very straight forward and pretty slick. I have to say I’ve spent much more time waiting to get into the US than we did here and all 3 bags arrived quickly and without damage. Yay!

Through the arrival gate and our contact BJ was there to meet us and whisked us back to our home stay in the city where we would stay for a couple of days.

It was nice to get to bed.