Return to Kathmandu

I am back in Kathmandu. My tour to Everest base camp ended last night.

We had a final dinner at Rum Doodle restaurant - the last place I remember eating at on my first trip to Kathmandu. (Different Michael that time. Hey Michael, the food was even better than I remembered.)

Dawa, my guide from two years ago, also joined us. He ordered a plate of chips and several servings of Rum. He said I should be married and he offered to take me on a motor bike trip the next day in order to find a Nepali bride. He insisted he was serious and I believe he was. I explained (I think) that I only had a few days left in Nepal and it wasn't long enough to my liking for an appropriate courtship.

Today I had to find my own accommodation for two nights. My friend Guenter in Tokyo recommended that I stay at Nirvana. I found the Nirvana Garden. I realised that I stayed there the last time I was in Kathmandu. They wanted 2900 rupees a night (about $58 AUD). Instead I am staying at Nirvana Peace Home for 350 rupees ($7 AUD).

Probably not the place Guenter had in mind but I quite like it. My room is right next to the upstairs reading room/dining area - a large curtained balcony area - which I have been treating as my own lounge room. Fellow guests are mostly interesting international hippie types.

I have been having a nice lazy day today which is just what I what I will need from time to time on this grand adventure. I changed hotels, read some emails, backed up my photos, dropped off some washing, and booked a place to stay in Hong Kong (Hollywood Guest House, Kowloon).

I managed to get a print out of my booking just before the power cut out. Kathmandu has power restrictions at the moment with the electricity switched off between midnight and 8 am and midday and 8pm. We didn't have this electricity problem up in the Himilayas.

It's quarter to 6 now and I have just had an early dinner at a garden restaurant in the centre of Thamel. It's one of the first places I remember eating at on my first trip to Kathmandu. It's kind of a brick courtyard with a dozen metal tables and chairs. A large tree in the middle and trees and bushes around the borders. I am looking across the street at a clothing store where a mannequin child in a pashmina shawl stares back at me. Life-like except for her ghostly white face.