So as I mentioned in an earlier post, my luggage didn't make it to Nepal with me. So for the past few days I've been living in what I wore on the plane and a few other things I picked up in Kathmandu. However, I kept thinking that my bag would show up, and so didn't buy anything like toilettries or the like. Now that we are heading to our villages tomorrow, I need a sleeping bag and other things that I can't do without any longer. The result... a day shopping in Kathmandu with Carmella (who also lost her bag) and Gaurav.
We began the day by driving down the mountain from Shivapuri. I don't think I described the road in my earlier post, so I'll do it now. The road is tiny, only big enough for one vehicle at a time (at one point we came upon a bus, which had to back down the road to the intersection!), very windy and very bumpy. I felt something like a bobblehead doll for the first hour or so, until the roads became smoother. After about 5 mins I began to enjoy it though, it was kind of like ATV-ing, but in an open air jeep.
Once we reached Kathmandu we went back to Thamel, to buy a new backpack and sleeping bag. I've never had a new bag hiking backpack before, so that was pretty exciting. The sleeping bag I got is only -10, whereas my old one was -40, but that was the best I could do. Immediatly after we went for lunch, to a Middle-Eastern restaurant in Thamel called OR2K. It was a beautiful restaurant, with cushions on the floor and low tables, so you took off you shoes and sat on the floor around the table. Extremely comfortable, and very relaxing. I had a three cheese panini, which tasted amazing... a nice break from rice all the time, although I guess I'd better get used to that.
After lunch we headed to Bhat Bhateni (I think I spelled that right), a department store, to buy clothes and toilettries. I did pretty well, but had A LOT of trouble finding pants, because I'm so much taller that the Nepali people are. I was able to find one pair at last, but couldn't find any shoes, because they didn't have any big enough for me!!
We were supposed to leave Shivapuri on Sunday (jan 10), but there was a strike planned in the Kathmandu Valley for that day, which essentially paralyzes the area in which it is occuring. Therefore it was decided we would leave Shivapuri a day early and head out of the valley. Because of this Carmella and I didn't head back up the mountain, but met the rest of the group in Kathmandu. After a LONG (about 7 hours) bus ride, we finally reached the Riverside Inn, where we spent the night. The trip shouldn't have taken so long, but we got a flat tire, and then there was TONS of traffic - people, mostly trucks and buses, trying to get out of the valley before the strike began.
The most interesting part of this was that it went back and forth about 4 times whether the strike (in Nepali, bunda) would actually occur. In the end it did, so we were happy to be out of the valley and not stuck in one place for a few days. Despite the long bus trip, we were also very happy to not have stayed in Kathmandu Saturday night, which would have involved getting up at about 3am to get away before the bunda began at 6am.
So now I am still bagless, but I have some more clothes, and I can finally take a shower without having to borrow everything. It's a wonderful feeling. I'm pretty much given up on getting my bag back, as there is apparently still no trace of it in the system. Oh well, such is life.
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