No pictures today.
Very pleasant morning and our North American style breakfast is pretty decent. Eggs, toast, peanut butter ... We decide to spend the morning wandering around our Thamel neighbourhood and getting some shopping in. I am not planning on spending any money, but I do find some stuff to buy for myself and family. It is very difficult to walk these narrow and crowded streets without being approached to buy goods, get a taxi, visit the store etc. All these shop owners are trying to get you inside. Negotiating is common in most shops. I prefer negotiating and my strategy is to offer a lower price then negotiate upwards and if we can't come to a price that I like then I walk away. On many occasions the shop owner will leave their store and confirm my asking price.
Purchases:
- An Everest Base Camp (EBC) black tee shirt
- two long-sleeved cotton shirts with great designs and excellent quality material
- a tee shirt for my granddaughter Georgia
- Cloth map of the Everest region for framing as part of my memento of the adventure
- Himalayan pink salt for Lana
- two books for me
- two tea containers
Jim is in a buying mood and is a generous guy. He buys two authentic Gurka knives for Tarlika's brothers. These knives are beautiful and expensive. We make a couple of trips to the hotel so we aren't carrying around this expensive stuff. Jim's luggage is in my room. We are hungry so stop at the Gokarna Restaurant. We have a table outside in the shade. Only one other diner when we arrive. The meal is decent and Jim is enjoying his beer. We get to talking with the manager. I FaceTime with Lana in London.
Eventually, we are back in the street for some more shopping and then back to my room to unload all our purchases. Jim is being picked up by Dorjee at 6:30 pm for a taxi ride to the airport for his flight back to Abu Dhabi and then New York. We obtain a quote from a trekking store to compare what we paid for our trekking and discover we got a pretty good deal from Dorjee. We decide to relax in the garden beside our hotel and just chat. We order dinner and my meal comes very late while Jim returns to my room to get a shower and clean up. Still a nice night. Dorjee arrives early and we say our goodbyes as Jim is off to the airport.
Back to my room and the power plugs won't work except for the one next to the bathroom counter. This is pretty typical. I am being stymied by China Southern Airlines online check-in system. I am hoping to check-in in advance and pick my seats. No luck. I wisely decide to get my packing done. This will take more than an hour. The porter backpack quickly fills up with my sleeping back and two large bags of dirty laundry. In my suitcase is my trekking boots as they will be safer there. I will pack my bathroom stuff tomorrow and have a change of clothes ready for when I leave for the airport at 9 pm tomorrow. I FaceTime with Lana in London again. Power goes off in the hotel for at least five minutes. I spend time deleting emails in my junk folder (>600). My last night in Kathmandu. Dorjee is picking me up around 11 am tomorrow on his motorcycle.
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