Day 56 - Chitwan National Park to Kathmandu, Nepall

Day 56 – Hers.

Tien and I were up early again.  She has been a super roommate – I guess I’ll have a private room tonight – and miss her bubbly laughter. ‘Boiled eggs and popcorn’ – and her gentle chastisement of Tek when he is the last at our assembled meeting place: ‘Late again, Princess? We’re all packed and ready to go...’  She takes responsible travel very seriously – always using her sleeping bag, hoping the hotel won’t wash the linen, and reusing one towel for as long as possible.  She goes through plastic water bottles at a rate of knots, though, – I tried to carry my empties with me until I reached a place where rubbish wouldn’t be as big a problem – and uses quite a lot of water for washing and electricity for charging things in the hotels and lodges.  I guess everything each of us tries to do is a step in the right direction, though – and using locally-owned hotels and restaurants makes the biggest difference – that, and generous tips and donations along the way.....

Did I mention that Tien’s family are Vietnamese boat people?  They left South Vietnam when Tien was 6, spent two years in Thailand and then settled in Australia.  I admire Tien greatly – she has a good job, a lively, friendly, optimistic personality – and a streak of cheekiness to keep life interesting. She hopes one day to be a primary school teacher – I hope she makes it – she would be terrific!

After breakfast, Tek presented Tien with a scarf and we all hugged a nearly tearful farewell.  What was left of our group climbed aboard a full sized bus – the biggest we’d had yet – with two stand-offish Australian women returning to Kathmandu for a private tour.  It was the usual hairy roadtrip – no landslides to negotiate this time – but a fatal accident on one of the winding mountainous sections – and a stop at the same roadside restaurant where Cindy and I had eaten the suspect cheese sandwiches.  We had vegetables with noodles this time, probably a bigger turnover and certainly fresher tasting – the two Australian women turned their noses up at everything and ate muesli bars on the bus.  Tek went to ask the management about those cheese sandwiches; he was assured that everything was made fresh each day - - and I must admit that the batch on display today looked much better than the two wilted specimens we had eaten – perhaps they had just had a slip up last week when management wasn’t watching too closely......  In any case, there don’t seem to have been any nasty repercussions this time!

We arrived back at the Hotel Shakti, our original hotel in Kathmandu, at around half past three, got our luggage out of store and returned our Gecko kit bags.  I immediately put several kilos worth of very smelly laundry in to be dealt with (Even they must think it’s bad – it’s going to take until 9pm tomorrow....) and charged up my computer – Internet at last....bliss!

Barry, Cindy and I said our farewells to Tek at 5, gave him his tip – and sent him home to his family.  He gave us each a scarf – and thanks for his evening off.... We were sure we could manage dinner in Kathmandu on our own!

So, dressed in clean and civilised clothes, we met up at 6:45 to have dinner.  We went to the one of Trip Advisor’s and Lonely Planet’s most highly recommended restaurants – Thamel House – that is only around the corner from our hotel.  It was a lovely meal (I had pan-fried trout with rice and vegetables) – though at tourist prices – there was yet more traditional dancing - and we received a little ceramic mask as a gift. Very sweet.  I had discovered that Barry and Cindy’s wedding anniversary had been the evening before, so rather than continue to play gooseberry, I returned to the hotel and began to write up the last week’s adventures.  I also discovered an email from Rob – he’s made it back to Namche....hopefully in one piece - - and I look forward to hearing about all of his adventures in due course!