A couple
would be staying a few days so they changed to a different hotel (which turned
out to be the neighbor of our current). Most of the rest of us met up at 0730
to go for breakfast followed by having a walk in a nearby garden and we
returned to the hotel at around 1100 as latest checkout was at 1200. One would
stay another night so we used his room for storage if we would be leaving later
during the day. We bumped into two who were leaving for a different hotel the
next few days so goodbyes were also said then.
One in
the group received a message form our assistant guide, once again thanking for
a good trip and for the birthday celebration/cake which he had never had
before.
In the
afternoon we (we were down to 5 from 14 after numerous goodbyes) walked to the
monkey temple. The temple was nice enough – with damages from the earthquake –
but the real attraction was the many, nay monkeys roaming around. A girl in the
group got so baffled/surprised by one getting close and hissing at her that she
threw was she could to distract it. In one hand she had a water bottle, in the
other her wallet. She did not throw the bottle. It got grabbed and taken behind
a tall fence, and after several monkeys had chewed on it for a couple of
minutes they left it alone. Another member of the group crawled over the (very)
pointy fence to retrieve it. Our hero! We quickly found out that if you weren’t
carrying a bag or smelled of food, the monkeys couldn’t care less about you.
Chaos might have occurred, vicious fights might have broken out but never did
they touch humans though they did get very close at times.
Coming
back to the hotel at 1740 I grabbed the taxi that was to pick me up to the
airport at 1800, final goodbyes were had and that was it.
The
flight home via Doha was on time so I was looking forward to some more time in
a hotel room as when going out. Unfortunately there was no room in the airport
hotel so I was put into one of the city’s instead. Unfortunately all queues to
get out of the airport (accommodation service, passport control, security…)
were long and slow. Employees had no rush. Wait for the bus to the hotel also
took a bit too long. All this meant that the stay in the hotel was less than 4
hours in total, 3 hours sleep. It felt fancy getting a key for the 7th
floor, but I was put down a couple of notches when entering the elevator and
seeing there were close to 30 floors. 3 hours was not satisfactory but 3 hours
in an amazingly comfortable bed is still better than only getting sleep on a
flight. Also disappointing is it that the airline doesn’t have some system to
get their overnighters out in an effective way from the airport to optimize the
hotel stay. On the other had in this case it likely wouldn’t have helped
considering it seemed as if half the airport was walking around with hotel
vouchers.
After
Doha though the rest of the flight was smooth and on time.
Big
thanks to Bob, Alison, Frances, Daniel, Gerrard, Katie, Nick, Kylie, Sylvia,
Tanja, Tina, Connie and Silvan for being such great people. Thanks to Puspa and
Maski for being great guides. Thanks to all for making this trip memorable.
Hope we all get to meet each other again!
The wallet being tested for edibility.
"There aren't many monkeys at the temple".
Cue a herd come running down the stairs up to the temple.
Kathmandu seen from the monkey temple.
The stupa at the temple.
The view when walking through Kathmandu back to the hotel.
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