Breakfast at the hotel that morning was good. It was the start of our usual eggs, potatoes, and toast breakfast that we’d have pretty much every day while in Nepal. We learned a valuable lesson though - when eating at a somewhat dodgy establishment, order black coffee. We asked for coffee with milk and our coffee had lumps. After breakfast we found a nearby ATM, and a decent Americano at a bakery a couple blocks away.
Furwa came back by to drop off the trekking duffle bags to put our overnight gear into and to take care of a mildly annoying chore. He had told us that a credit card payment would be fine, but he changed his mind upon our arrival and told us he needed cash instead to take care of some immediate expenses. We weren’t exactly happy to be spending our limited time in Kathmandu visiting banks, but we needed to get it done. In the end Furwa had to settle for half the payment in cash, the other by credit card. Nepali banks have some pretty decent safeguards to prevent thieves from draining westerners bank accounts, so trying to get more than a few hundred bucks out each day was basically impossible.
That afternoon we grabbed a taxi and headed across town to Swayambunath Temple which was well worth the trip - tons of monkeys, a cool old Buddhist Temple, thousands of prayer flags in the trees, and a nice view of the whole city.
That night we met the whole gang, our cook, Nima, and our porters Dawa, Chheten, Kanchha, and Sonam. Furwa talked a lot about the weather and cold temps. I knew that Becky and I had gear that would be fine for what we’d encounter, and our guide has spent quite a bit of time on Everest, so we were sure he’d be comfy, and our cook had done this trek before so he knew what to expect, but we were concerned that the porters might not quite know this trek is supposedly a little rougher than a lot of others they may have done before. We gave the porters gifts of new wool socks and a few random fleece jackets and polypro shirts that we didn’t use anymore.
Dinner that night was at a nearby Italian restaurant in Thamel. It was pretty decent grub and I think this was our first night of drinking Tuborg, a Dutch lager with a brewery in Kathmandu which became our preferred option amongst the rather flavorless beers (Gorkha, Everest Ice, San Miguel, etc) that are available.
...the next day
link to all the photos.
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