Our $13 room was really nice. The staff at The Flying Yak were very friendly, if not disappointed that we had already booked our guides as they provide treking services too.
We did a bit of shopping, New boots for me as mine really looked dodgy, having been stored in a warm dry garage for about 10 years. I have taken to wearing trail runners but decided I might need boots for the snowy high passes. NZD$82.
The streets were stressing me out, and I was really ready to be in the mountains. It is amazing that anyone has electricity here when you see the tangle of wires. There was a real commotion when one big tangle soarked and banged and caught fire. People in the apartments above were tipping buckets of water on it, which didn’t help. The police arrived as I was imagining Thamal burning. When we returned an hour later, a man was up there sorting out the tangle with the power still on.
We fluffed around for a couple of hours, sorting our gear between the big duffle bags that the porter carries and our packs. We both have more gear than we took on Te Araroa but we need to make the porter feel needed.
We met with Puru and our Guide, Basu and paid our $USD1,300 and sorted out our final arrangements.
We had another quiet break in the Kathmandu Guest House gardens before having dinner in restaurant over looking a crowded Thamal Street. We chatted with an English man who had lived in Thailand for 15 years but was in the process of moving to Pokhara. Pokhara is the tourist town where we will finish our Annapurna Circuit. He said he didn’t like Thai people, so we wondered why it took him 15 years to leave.
We shared a bottle of very sweet Nepalese wine to accompany our dinner.
I hope the new boots treat you well.
Love your descriptive writing!
Good luck with the walks
Note: when I’m writing the comment I can’t read it, a bit weird.