Last night was a beautiful nights sleep. Apart from the dog waking me up at 8am, hours before I was planning to wake up!! But I stayed in bed reading and playing games on my iPad until 10.30 or so, at which point I decided I really needed the toilet. So I ran across the hall (to avoid being seen in my pjs!!) to the communal bathroom, and ran back to my nice warm bed. Stayed there for a bit longer, then got up properly, got dressed, then headed downstairs for breakfast at the Gaia restaurant. Michael was down there with a friend of his, so I sat with them for an hour or so, and ate pancakes with a banana and maple syrup. YUM!! Oh, and a coffee. Never tasted so good!!
I the. Went back upstairs to brush teeth etc, then headed out to find somewhere to stay for the next week and a half. I spent 2 and 1/2 hours walking round, going into every single hotel, hostel, guesthouse, lodge I could find, and asking how much a twin bedroom cost for one night. The cheapest I found was 425rps (about £2.50) but with an outside bathroom, no hot water, and no wifi. Most expensive was $40 (about 4000rps). Per night. Wayyyyy out of my budget!!!! In the end, I went for Marco Polo Guest House. 700rps a night (about £4.50), hot water, wifi, apparently very good. So I went there, saw the room, signed a form, then went to fetch my bags. About 2 minutes walk without bags, it felt like a few hours trek up a steep mountain on the way back with my bags. When I got to the hotel though, no help from anyone of the 3 staff in the reception. Just "your key is on the door" and nothing else. Not helping a poor weak white girl carry her tonnes of bags up the stairs to her room. Oh well. At least I got a hot shower!!!! I've never ever been so grateful for water burning my skin. I stood under the water for hourssss just soaking in the warmth of a normal shower!! Normal showers are not freezing water in a bucket. They are hot water. HOT water. Not lukewarm, not warm. Hot.
After my shower I got dressed in my cleanest clothes, and sorted out the room. There not much to it, but it's quite nice. Bed is rock solid, but you won't find anything different in Nepal!! My one complaint is that the toilet seat is on rusty hinges and almost breaks off every time I sit on it. Oh and the door doesn't close properly. It's got a lock and everything, just the for doesn't actually close. So no peaking Liam!!
At around 6, I started to get hungry, so I wandered around and found the H2O pub and cafe. I've heard a bit about it, but never been. On the first floor, I sat by an open window looking and listening to the sounds of the street. Now before I say anything next, alcohol in Nepal is watered down. A lot. So because I got there before 7, it was still happy hour. Which means if you buy 2 cocktails, you get a third free. Which comes to a total of 400rps - £2.50ish. So I sat myself sipping at cocktails you wouldn't be able to tell were alcoholic, eating extremely cheesy pasta, then treated myself to an apple flavoured shisha. Which was about £1. A nice evening. Especially as there was a live band!! Kristina Grant, your perfect guy. Tall, long dreads, beautiful voice, nice clothes, beard etc. you hippy you!! In fact, you'd love every guy here - 3/4 of them have dreads, and they all wear funny clothes haha!!
At 8, I decided to head back to the hotel. Picked up some water from reception, then facetimed Liam. Missed his gorgeous face!! For those of you in older generations (my grannies), FaceTime is a bit like Skype, but on Apple products like iPads and iPhones. Very useful!!
I can now afford to have later nights here, as I don't have to get up at silly hour!! So it's almost 11pm now, and time for bed!!