Thursday 16th November
During the night I only went to the toilet once. The alarm went off at 5.45 a.m. After settling the bill, I waited outside at the front of the hotel for the bus to pick me up. Several shops had started to open up and a couple of croissants and cinnamon rolls were purchased for breakfast.
The bus turned up at 6.45 a.m. It stopped several times on the way through Pokhara to pick up passengers. A guy named Sanj sat next to me. He is a student in Kathmandu. At our first stop I bought some bananas. On the next stage of our journey I must have dozed for about an hour or so. The time seemed to pass quickly, and the journey was more pleasant than the one on Tuesday.
At 11.30 a.m. the bus driver stopped at his regular lunch spot. Good progress had been made despite the heavy local traffic. The driver recognised me when I got off the bus. He was the same guy who had driven me to Pokhara. “Hello,” he said, and shook my hand. That was very friendly of him. Another example of the friendly nature of the Nepalese.
After lunch the driver was more aggressive in his driving, overtaking most of the local traffic. The traffic slowed to a crawl on the approach to Kathmandu. It took a long time to get onto the main road, New Road. We passed the national stadium on the way to Kantipath. It was 3.30 p.m. when we arrived at our destination.
To my surprise, who should come into view when I walked round the corner from the bus stop, but Peter. He was with his nephew. After chatting for a few minutes, we decided to meet up later. I had not eaten so food was top priority. A late lunch was eaten at Pumpernickels. After checking in at the Holy Lodge I shopped around for a T-shirt as a souvenir to take home. There are many amusing embroidered T-shirts to choose from. My final choice was one that had the words, ‘Trek around Everest, Nepal’. It would be ready in two hours. Pilgrims Bookshop was the next stop. I bought Ryohei Uchida’s book of the Everest region, a National Geographic magazine and some candles. The book has superb photographs of the areas covered on my trek.
When there is a change in flight schedules, KGH is one of the first to know. They display any information on a noticeboard in the lobby. A visit was made to KGH to find out if any flights had been rescheduled. There were no messages – no news is good news. Then it was off to the Mustang Guest House. Paulo was not in so I left a message for him. There was nothing left to do so I went back to the Holy Lodge to freshen up for dinner. But first I had to collect my rucksack that had been kept for safekeeping while I was away in Pokhara.
I had almost run out of money so �10 was exchanged. This should see me through until tomorrow. For dinner I had hamburger and fries at the Rum Doodle Doo. Afterwards I decided to call for Paulo to see if he was in, and this time was in luck. For the next half-hour I sifted through Paulo’s huge collection of photos, a few hundred of them! There were some excellent pictures and I asked if I could have some reprints. We made a quick trip to the Kodak developing shop before they closed. An order was put in and the photos will be ready tomorrow morning.
I collected my T-shirt. It looks great and will remind me of my holiday here. In the street I bumped into Jill and Marcia. They told me that there had been more avalanches in Nepal this week. Some 44 people have been killed and many others are missing. Apparently it has been in the world news, but it is a bit late to call home now as I am flying out tomorrow. We said goodbye for the last time. Then it was on to Fire & Ice Pizzeria where I met up with Paulo, Paul, John and Peter’s nephew, but I didn’t stay long. Back at the hotel I packed my rucksack, showered, and then went to bed.