Shopping Extravaganza

24^th of December

After a relatively restful night sleep on our lovely concrete like beds (only disturbed by our over flowing toilet dripping, the lights and TV being turned back on after a brown out & my lovely mobile phone alarm) we headed back out into the organized chaos of the street of Thamel for some tasty breakfast. We headed out into a food court opposite the hotel and all got the Country Breakfast – bacon, eggs, a garlic & potato frittata & toast (complete with jam and frozen butter).

After breaky we then headed in search for some of our last pieces of missing equipment for the trek. Top on the list of things to buy was a down jacket to help us combat this freezing cold. The first place we stopped off at was in some random alley where we all had a chance to try on one of the jacket and ensure it would fit underneath our gortex jacket for the trek. It made us all look very Michelin man like!! High-light of this stop though, would have to be KTP getting shatted on by one of the birds lounging on window still… needless to say she wasn’t very happy!! (I tired telling her it was good luck… but she didn’t seem to want to hear about it!!)

We managed to get everything we need for a relatively decent price. Alicia was our main bargainer and she was pretty good at putting on the hard sell while KTP and I giggled in the corner. Between the three of us we got 2x -20 sleeping bags, 3x down jackets, 2x gortex gloves, 3x beanies, a daypack, a litre water bottle, as well as a stack of postcards and other nick knacks.

After that we headed to Tibetan for lunch… where we purchased WAY TOO MUCH FOOD!! We got some steamed momos, cheese balls, momo in soup, Tibetan bread in honey, as well as two sort of noodle soup dishes… (yeah we’re pretty sure we’ll be the first tourists to come back from Nepal larger than when we got here :P) The food was awesome again… though it took a while for it all the come out… which really was probably a good thing! We also tried some Tibetan tea… which was an interesting experience. It’s made from milk, butter and salt & pretty much tastes like liquid butter with salt in it. Not something I think I would drink again… unless I was going to die of thirst (& even then KTP thinks urine may be the better option!)

We then headed back into the street of Thamel for the afternoon – wandering around with no real goal in mind and just exploring around. We got ourselves completely lost for a little bit but managed to find our way back to the hotel eventually!! Part way through both KTP and I got approached by some random Hindu guy in yellow who put flowers in our hair and gave us both a red dot on our forehead for good luck… before asking for a “donation”. While I sneakily pulled out a 10 rupee note out of my wallet, KTP pulled out a handful of 50s and of course he then requested a 200 rupee donation… so pretty much we kinda got conned… BUT at least we got a RED DOT out of it. (Alicia thinks we are idiots!)

Further along, we then got solicited by some random Nepalese “guide” who wanted to show us the temples around Kathmandu… he also wanted to show KTP a good time offering his hand in marriage!! He even offered to purchase her ‘beautiful Nepalese wedding sari’. For some reason, she declined! (We told her to hold out for more chickens as her dowry first!)

(Alicia: THESE IDIOTS JUST DON’T KNOW WHEN TO NOT TALK TO THESE PEOPLE!!)

Tonight we have something (relatively) special planned for Christmas Eve. There seems to be some sort of shin-ding on down the road with music, a BBQ and presents… so we’ll probably head down there. Our room is currently ‘decorated’ with a beautiful Christmas stocking… all ready for Santa’s arrival!! We are sure he will be able to find us where we are!! : )

On behalf of the three of us we wish anyone reading this a very Merry Christmas!! We’ll hopefully get a chance to update at least one more time before we start trekking up the mountain!!

Brennan (Alicia & KTP)