And so, here we are. The last blog, and 29th, of the trip! Although we have several days to cover, this will be a bit of a short one for several reasons. Firstly, we only have an hour and a half to write it and upload it before we head off for dinner and then to the airport; secondly, because we took our last few days in Thamel relatively easily and so there less to report; and thirdly, because after a day of waiting to leave for the airport neither one of us is feeling our absolute jocular story-telling best selves. But, hopefully we can paint a picture of central Kathmandu and our time there, as well as share some of our photos. Here we go!

Sunday –

We were up leisurely on Sunday, still up in Shivapuri heights in the foothills of the Himalayas to the north of Kathmandu and looking over the valley. We had our usual breakfast of fruits and curd, then eggs and hash browns (though Ellie skipped this given her stomach was still a bit dodgy). After breakfast, we packed up our stuff for the penultimate time, said goodbye to the dogs, and set off in a taxi down the precipitous roads in to central Kathmandu.

Our hotel, Swarga Heritage Hotel, was on a side road in the busy, touristy Thamel district of central Kathmandu. The hotel was really well appointed and gave Calcutta Bungalow vibes, with very friendly staff welcoming us in. It was lunch time by the time we arrived, and so we headed out to the nearby Thamel Breakfast House (which also did lunch, obviously) we had found when first in Kathmandu before our flight to Pokhara.

The lunch was delicious, and I tackled the first of two huge sandwiches that I would face in our time in Kathmandu. Once we’d eaten, we walked the short distance down busy roads to the hotel to rest until the evening. We spent the afternoon tutoring, planning our last few days, and otherwise relaxing in the big hotel room. It was the kind of evening we would have liked to have been able to eat at home, but given this wasn’t an option we headed out to another nearby and relatively uninspiring restaurant for dinner before calling it a night.

Monday –

Monday was our biggest day, from a itinerary point of view. We had a good breakfast downstairs in Swarga with, most importantly, good coffee, before calling a cab to take us to Kopan monastery in the north of the city. Kopan monastery is one of the biggest and most famous Buddhist monasteries in Nepal, and we had nearly decided to book a retreat there before eventually opting for Sadhana.

The taxi driver dropped us off at a set of stairs leading up the side of the hill on which Kopan sat, and so it was sweating and out of breath that we arrived at the gates. We didn’t know how much of the monastery we were going to be allowed to see, so we were pleasantly surprised when we were given permission by the monk manning the reception desk to have free reign of practically the whole grounds. First we came to the absolutely gorgeous stupa park overlooking the city, then walked around the peaceful grounds to the main meditation hall. We had been given permission to go inside, so we unlocked the doors and spent some time pacing around the silent, lavishly decorated space.

After the meditation hall, we crossed the courtyard and nosed around the library and book shop which boasted an impressive collection on Tibetan Buddhism as well as other world religions, innumerable books by or about the Dalai Lama, and a number of tasteful Buddhist themed nick-nacks that we just about restrained ourselves from buying. From the library, we sat amongst the monks and people on retreat in the small but efficiently run cafe for an ice cold coke before heading out and back down the hill into the city.

It was a thirty minute or so walk through Kathmandu life to reach a little cafe we had identified for lunch, and we spent a pleasant few hours sat on their rush mats eating thali and reading our books. As the afternoon wore on we eventually tore ourselves away and walked the short distance to the famous Boudhanath stupa. I was about to say that Boudhanath stupa is the biggest stupa in Nepal, but I don’t know that for sure. It can’t be far off, though. We joined the crowds circumambulating the massive, white dome which was supposed to contain the remains of Kassapa Buddha (who apparently came before Gautama), then took a quick detour through the adjoining Peace Park (which was largely made of concrete) before heading back to the hotel in a taxi.

After a couple of hours at the hotel, we ventured out into the busy streets of Thamel. Dodging hawkers selling off-tune violins and the constant stream of mopeds, we ducked into a little Japanese restaurant for a very good meal. Ellie had found a blog during our time in Patan, the author of which now lived in Kathmandu, and it has never failed us on recommendations. After our delicious meal of ramen, teriaki aubergines and, unexpectedly, potato salad, we made our way to the hotel and to bed.

Tuesday –

We started Tuesday with another tasty and free breakfast at Swarga and headed out for a leisurely stroll around a couple of art galleries in Thamel. The first of them was really nothing special, but the second was a bit better. There was a room for each exhibitionist artist, some of which clearly doubling as that artist’s current studio so it was fun to see some of their work in action.

We had planned to go for another boulder in Kathmandu so grabbed some lunch nearby and headed to the bouldering wall. The boulders here were incredibly hard, despite one of the crazy instructors scaling them with his flip flops on, and we both congratulated ourselves extensively for not getting to cross about frequently getting 1m off the ground on the ‘beginner’ climbs. We stuck it out for an hour or so until our fingers felt they were about to drop off and headed back for some much needed rest. In the evening we ordered in Mexican, and drew at cribbage before taking ourselves off to bed.

Wednesday –

On Wednesday we’d planned to do a morning Yin Yoga class which looked very sleek from the posters, so we woke up early to get to the location on time. It was supposed to take place in a hotel, and the reception staff looked a bit worried when we asked where to go and said to message the teacher. We have perhaps finally learned our lesson that you have to book ahead here as you are normally the only people in attendance! We are sorry to report that not only was the class not on as nobody had booked, but as we sat down waiting for the reply the newspaper in front of us contained the unfortunate headline about the excessive turbulence on the recent Singapore airlines Singapore to London flight! The very flight we were to take in a couple of days time…

A bit wobbled by this, we treated ourselves to breakfast out (Breakfast House Thamel again!) and re-assessed our options for the morning. We headed for a stroll around the Garden of Dreams, which again I’d seen recommended in the aforementioned blog. This was a very pleasant surprise and a beautiful garden, perfectly maintained, full of colourful flowers and with a lovely pond full of lotus flowers. We happily whiled away some time admiring it.

We then popped in to an appointment at a nearby tattoo studio (…) and home via a sandwich place for a takeaway sandwich. Rob for some reason went for the XL sandwich which turned out to be 2 loaves of bread, and I’d also insisted on bubble teas (will we ever learn they are too sweet). Somehow he got through tutoring but then we both crashed for a few hours. We cancelled a sound bath we’d planned to attend and curled up in bed with an episode of the Dog House for moral support, followed by a virtual viewing of a rental in Oxford we loved.

By evening we’d rallied again and headed out for the last supper. The blog had given us another great recommendation of a Thai restaurant – some of the best food we’ve had in Nepal – which made for a wonderful final evening. It was bittersweet but lovely to reflect on how much of an incredible time we’ve had, and how much we feel we’ve grown from it. Even if we were enjoying ourselves so much that we ended up submitting our application for that rental 30 seconds before the deadline!

Thursday –

It was breakfast as usual in Swarga on our last morning of the trip. Once we’d eaten, we made our way up to the room for a long packing session to make sure we had everything in the right place for the 24-hour journey home. The packing was completed just as the clock struck our check-out time of midday, and we dropped the bags off downstairs before heading out into Thamel for lunch.

Neither of us had that much of an appetite, what with mourning the end of the trip, so we opted for a nice little salad bar a little walk from the hotel which was complete with a number of tiny cats lounging around. We dragged out lunch here given we had time to kill, then walked back to the hotel. For the next couple of hours we sat in the hotel lobby while I tutored and poor Ellie had to amuse herself to while away the time.

After teaching, we had booked a yoga session in the Thamel studio of the instructor we had a lesson with back in Patan. Other than the fact that he did exactly the same class for us, it was nice to get out and moving for an hour or so. We walked back to the hotel in the evening warmth. The hawkers were out in force, and you could really feel the slight desperation as all of the tourists start to depart the country before the monsoon.

Once back at the hotel, we got out the laptop to write the blog – and here we are. Once we put the photos in the blog and upload it, we are going to head out for a pizza before collecting the bags and calling a taxi. Our first flight takes us to Singapore then a second flight takes us home to Heathrow, arriving about 4pm UK time tomorrow (Friday 14th).

And so, here ends the last blog. We have loved writing it, and it has given us an opportunity to make a record of the incredible time we have had over the last four and a half months. Thank you for being a part of it!

Until next time, in person,

Ellie & Rob xxx