Kathmandu free day

Day 14 - Kathmandu

Today is a 'free day' - we're in Kathmandu earlier than the rest of the group, coming by plane and bus over the course of the day. What should we do?

Black Olives seemed like a good place to start for breakfast. This was very nearly a disastrous choice as coffee was off the menu - their machine was broken. Luckily we saw one of the staff wander out with a big bag of coffee beans, and come back with a big bag of ground coffee, and then coffee was back on the menu again.

Phillipa, Angela and I plotted and schemed over our fresh coffee. The Royal Palace Museum seemed like the go for the day, and it looked to be walkable from our hotel. So off we set.

Google maps plotted our journey, and it looked fairly straightforward to get there. We strolled through Thamel and came out at a fairly major intersection. It's a little scary but you just walk across the road with purpose, and traffic somehow flows around you without running you over and maiming or killing you. Somehow I got us to cross the road on three sides instead of one. Oh well. It was three times the adventure.

We passed a high wall with a small entranceway labeled "Garden Of Dreams".  That seemed too intriguing to miss, so we paid our 400 rupee admission and in we went. It was beautiful inside. A quiet, peaceful oasis from the hurly burly of Kathmandu and Nepal. It'd be good to time this for lunch or afternoon tea at the cafe inside, and a good escape if the busyness of Kathmandu is getting to you. We explored the nooks and crannies of the garden, the museum explaining why the garden was here, and played on the big swing that was installed for Dashain.

Garden of Dreams was a good move because when we made it to the museum, we discovered that it was closed for Dashain. Closed today, closed tomorrow, closed until after we left Nepal. Oh well. One for next time.

Japan vs Tonga

We navigated back to the hotel; the rest of the group filtered in during the day and we met up over rugby in the foyer before dinner at Places Restaurant and Bar. A funky place with great atmosphere - have to say my paneer was a bit flavourless though. Their decor was pretty good and I got a bit up close and personal with their yeti.