August 12 - Nepal: Kathmandu

Today we slept in because we have to switch hotels to the place where Intrepid Travel arranged for us to stay.  We're excited to meet up with another group tonight and to meet some new people.  We packed up our stuff and checked out of the Kathmandu Prince Hotel (where, by the way, Jon negotiated an AWESOME price for us when we get back from our trip).  It's a nice little place and the staff is very nice.

Northfield Cafe

We put on our backpacks and trekked a few blocks away to the Hotel Harati.  We dropped off our stuff, grabbed our books, and headed out to lunch.  We went to the Northfield Cafe in the Thamel district - a cute little courtyard back away from the street covered by a big blue tarp.  We ordered banana smoothies and nachos, and read our books.  Then we ordered lunch and read some more, and then ordered a scrumptious apple pie a la mode.  It started raining a bit, but we didn't care because we were under the big blue tarp.  

After lunch, we walked around more of Thamel, stopping in the backpacker stores to get fleece gloves and hats for Tibet (where we will be at/above 3500 meters).  We also picked up a little t-shirt I had made a few days before.  Then we went back to the hotel because we'd forgotten our computer disk to upload journal entries.

While we were back at the hotel, Kath - our Intrepid Travel Leader - stopped by to say hello and to get some paperwork we had for her.  She's very cool, and we chatted about traveling and the Tibet trip for a while.  Then she left and Jon took the disk to the Internet Cafe while I lay around and read my book.  He also stopped by a grocery store for snacks and took my new t-shirt back to the store because they'd forgotten to sew part of it. (oops)  What a great guy to do all that while I lay around!

Dinner at K-Too

At 6:00, we went down to the hotel lobby to meet Kath and our new travel group.  There are about 12 of us, and we were surprised by the number of Americans in the group.  Kath briefed us on the trip (very cool), the accommodations (very sparse), and the high altitude (very high).  We also talked about Intrepid's "Responsible Travel" mantra: don't use too many plastic water bottles, don't promote the begging, and respect the religious pilgrims - among other things.

Then we went to dinner at K-Too, a restaurant in Thamel.  We were quite a happy crowd, and there was a cool band playing in the bar so we were very content.  

After a while, a group of 40 teenagers with matching shirts came in as well.  We wondered why any group would want matching shirts, but found out later that they had been together trekking for a month and tonight was their last night together.  So they were very sentimental and taking pictures of anyone who moved.  One of the kids got up, borrowed the band's guitar, and sang a song which made the whole group teary-eyed.  I remember high school trips like that!

Anyway, here's the low-down on our group from what we could gather over dinner: