Kathmandu

Had scheduled to meet for brekkie with Lucy and Anita downstairs. I really enjoyed having fruit options this morning.
After this we transitioned to downstairs to meet with Kay and Dawa.
We are so lucky, todays group that are flying to Lukla are still in the airport. Lukla is closed again and they will have to get helicopters ($300USD each)
We are the only group that has flown by plane so far.
They had to leave because they got a call and someone in that group is real sick. Couldn’t hear everything but i heard “hospital”.

We went for a walk to find paintings we found a few shops. The first one we found was great - dude wasn’t pushy and gave us reasonable prices of the bat. depending on size it was like 75-300$.
We told him we were going to look at others and might come back so he gave us his card.
We found a few more. The first place dude was a pest, reallllly passionate but ugh, go away lol.
He also said $900 for the same things lol. Which made the first shop dude look even better.
We browsed though others but really wanted to give the first guy our business. So we decided to go back but first, lunch.
Kathmandu has some great mocktail options.
There was a cat at the resturant who had a collar - i offered it some chicken but it preferred the ash tray lol.
It was such a cat. Not scared of me but looking at me with such distain when I gestured for it to come get a head scratch haha.

I really liked the lunch spot - it was called electric Pogoda.

As we were walking back to the painting place we popped into a short store and bought a yak yak yak shirt for Jax and a basecamp one for me.
$8 for both without even bartering. Dude kept the change just for being honest.

Went and bought 2 paintings. We bought 1 each and it was about $270 all up I think.
Very pleased.

Went back to the hotel and ran into Anita. We exchanged emails and said our goodbyes. She bought me a pashmina scarf as a present.
I will miss her, she is bonkers. 😍

We dumped our stuff and headed back out to the Narayanhiti palace museum.
They were really strict. You could not get your phone in, it had to go into a locker.
Only things allowed were water and wallets.
They patted you down to check.

I really enjoyed inside. It was quick and to the point, you walked through the palace in a circuit and it a quick sentence were told the purpose of each room.
The entire palace is a living embodiment of “Grandmas house”
Very 1970’s with wood, carpets, orange, browns, tan and greens.
Such a waste of space - many of the rooms were only used for one day a year.
This place is significant because it’s the location the Royal family was shot and killed in 2001. Surrea it’s so recent.
The prince is the accused - he died from his gun shot wound 3 days after the event - he was crowned King for those 3 days.
There is a conspiracy theory around the event because the prince was right handed but was shot in his left temple.
Once through the main palace you went outside an into a different building section - here it had signs identifying the exact spots the Royal family members were shot and died.
Gun bullets holes remain on one of the wall.
I really enjoyed the experience.

on the way back we went to the garden of dreams.
$4 to enter and inside wasn’t that great tbh.
It seems to be a location of status though. Everyone was getting selfie after selfie. Almost lik if you can afford entry you are wealthy and have to flaunt it.
The highlight were the chipmunks - I’m now led to believe they are a small squirrel.

We went shopping for Will. He got some shit from Nike and Adidas.

Returned to hotel and spoke with Lucy for an hour in the lobby and said our goodbyes.

Later we went to dinner with Helen and Tom. What a great couple - we had lots of laughs!

Said our goodbyes to them too :(Read more