26 - 30 Nov 2012
We got back from Chitwan just after lunch, grabbed our bags from storage at the Radisson and then headed to Dubur Square for our second attempt at finding Monumental Paradise. The guesthouse recommended by a couch surfer turned friend.We had a little more information this time, as I had emailed them and asked for more direction. Apparently they're on 'Old Freak Street' which is the street we found a month ago on our first attempt, but as the website had said they were on 'Freak Street' we didn't think it was the same one. We still looked down it, but streets are weird in Nepal, you don't know when they end and start. Monumental seemed to be around the corner on another street when we finally found it.
It became our favourite guesthouse in Kathmandu. The rooms were very clean and comfortable, there was good wi fi, hot water (when there was power, which in Nepal was always hit and miss), and the restaurant at the top was divine! Every meal we ate there was prepared from scratch, they even made their own bread! Prices were very reasonable as well, so we found ourselves not leaving the guesthouse at all some days. For $12 a night we were happy. They even provided extra blankets because one blanket is not enough in winter. after Annapurana we had noticed a significant drop in temperature in Kathmandu since we first arrived.
Our first night at Monumental we met up with my friend Aneka, an awesome Maltese couch surfer who I met in Darwin when she came camping with us. We only knew each other for a couple of days but we hit it off straight away, you know how when you meet some people and you just click? Well we did. She has an awesome outgoing personality, loves to have fun and treats everyone with respect as equals. I love people like that, who make you feel comfortable to be you and never allow for a quiet or awkward moment!
After checking in, we headed up to our room to dump our stuff before having lunch. The guy at the front wanted our visa info and Sam showed me the yellow slip we got at the airport which of course I couldn't find. So I went into a panic, thinking I had lost my visa. I emptied every single pocket in every bag trying to find it. I swore I kept it in my passport but could not find it there.. shit. I was going to have to apply for another and pay god knows how much! This is what was going through my mind. Sam went down to see if he could check in on just his, which was fine, but found out in the meantime that the visa is actually stuck inside our passport, and that piece of yellow paper was just the receipt of payment! Ah! Relief! My panic soon disappeared and my hunger came back. So we headed up to the rooftop restaurant and had first meal there - the Mexican burger. So so SO good! Food in Nepal had been very hit and miss, so it was awesome to find somewhere that was guaranteed a success with every meal.
After lunch Sam wandered off outside to check out what was around us while I wanted to have a nap, that's when I heard a knock on the door - Aneka! It was so good to see her! Conversation flowed easily and we had a great time catching up. She'd only been in Nepal a couple of days and already had some great stories. Man that girl always has cool shit happen for her. She was in a small hilltop village called Nagarkot and met a local who took her to his family farm where they were growing loads of weed! I have to admit I was feeling a tad jealous at this point, the closest Sam and I had come to any weed was sharing that hash joint with the Spanish guy while trekking.
We headed out for dinner to Thamel and Aneka being Aneka got us walking and figuring out the way ourselves. Up until this point Sam and I had been getting taxis everywhere and getting insanely ripped off at the same time. We soon figured out Thamel was an easy, straightforward 20min walk from Durbur Square, and we had been paying 200 ($2.50) rupees each way by taxi! Our first time we paid 500 rupees!
We found a restaurant that sold Tongba, so Aneka could try it. This time we all got our own individual ones, and they came out in wooden jugs instead of the silver. They were huge! So we spent hours drinking and talking, laughing and just generally enjoying ourselves. This was the first real time since we left Australia that Sam and I had drinking company. It's nice to have someone else for a change. I mean I love Sam to death don't get me wrong, but when you're together nonstop day in, day out, it's just nice to have someone else to talk to.
There were some locals smoking hash by the shesha and Aneka decided to go ask them to share, so soon a joint was being passed around our circle. It's crazy how different our night becomes when with Aneka! She has some balls on her that one. Sam and I would never have the guts to ask a group of guys like that. I guess from the years of traveling on her own she's grown that confidence, she'd have to or she'd be bored shitless!
We didn't leave til after midnight when the restaurant basically kicked us out. This was definitely the latest Sam and I had been up since leaving Australia! We're always in bed by 7 or 8pm, lame I know but that's what we'd become with all our trekking etc.
The walk back to Durbur Square was much quieter, no scooters, tuk tuks or taxis beeping every second in your ear and trying to dodge all the people and traffic in a skinny arse street. We had the whole street to ourselves. It was spooky! Nepal really isn't a late night kind of country, after 9.30pm everything shuts down and it becomes ghost town. Kind of crazy when during the day it's so mental and loud.All the tuk tuks from the day were lying around the place with the driver fast asleep,I have no idea how they managed to sleep while being crammed in a 2 person seat like that and their feet up on the bike handle bars... Drivers were also sleeping in their taxis. It kind of made me sad to see. It would be freezing for one, not to mention lonely and uncomfortable. I suddenly found myself with a new respect for angry and demanding taxi drivers who try rip you off every moment they have.
We walked past one taxi who had his window slightly down as he was sitting in the driver seat. Both Aneka and I instantly got a whiff, but Aneka of course was the one to blurt it out "Woah! Smell that weed!" Sure enough he was getting high. Well what else can you do as a poor local Nepalese guy who lives in his taxi? He noticed us looking back at him and talking, so he ended up driving the taxi over to us and asking where we want to go. He thought we wanted a ride! ha! Aneka asked him straight up "Dude, can we have some of your weed?". I cannot believe it but the guy actually gave us a chunk! he even gave us paper to wrap it up in! He didn't have papers to roll a joint, but still what a legend. He didn't ask for any money out of us, he just gave us weed. Seriously love local Nepalese people. I have to admit I felt bad afterwards that we took this poor mans weed when that's probably all he has to get through a cold night. But the whole scenario was hilarious at the same time. Aneka is so random!
We said goodbye to Aneka at her guesthouse, which was a couple meters down the road from ours. She had a bus at 7am to catch so we were feeling pretty sorry for her. By this stage it's 1am and all the buildings are locked up with roller doors, uh oh, we didn't even think to check about ours! Sure enough It's locked. There's a doorbell so we ring it, and we ring it, and we ring it.... No answer. We do this a few times over 5 or 10minutes and then I sit down as panic reaches and I realize we'll be spending the night on the street. How come they didn't tell us there was a lockout?? We head back to Aneka's to see if we can follow her in and share her room, but her place is locked to, which she obviously had a key for. Sam ends up holding down the doorbell so it just keeps ringing nonstop.Sure enough that does the trick!! The night duty guy was obviously sleeping through it. Thank god for Sam's persistence. It was freezing and I didn't want to be spending the night in the cold with the millions of dogs everywhere! Nepal has so many dogs, and in a big city like Kathmandu there seemed to be extra. They congregate in huge packs and all bark together non stop all night. Sam calls them dog parties lol.
We got back from Chitwan just after lunch, grabbed our bags from storage at the Radisson and then headed to Dubur Square for our second attempt at finding Monumental Paradise. The guesthouse recommended by a couch surfer turned friend.We had a little more information this time, as I had emailed them and asked for more direction. Apparently they're on 'Old Freak Street' which is the street we found a month ago on our first attempt, but as the website had said they were on 'Freak Street' we didn't think it was the same one. We still looked down it, but streets are weird in Nepal, you don't know when they end and start. Monumental seemed to be around the corner on another street when we finally found it.
It became our favourite guesthouse in Kathmandu. The rooms were very clean and comfortable, there was good wi fi, hot water (when there was power, which in Nepal was always hit and miss), and the restaurant at the top was divine! Every meal we ate there was prepared from scratch, they even made their own bread! Prices were very reasonable as well, so we found ourselves not leaving the guesthouse at all some days. For $12 a night we were happy. They even provided extra blankets because one blanket is not enough in winter. after Annapurana we had noticed a significant drop in temperature in Kathmandu since we first arrived.
Our first night at Monumental we met up with my friend Aneka, an awesome Maltese couch surfer who I met in Darwin when she came camping with us. We only knew each other for a couple of days but we hit it off straight away, you know how when you meet some people and you just click? Well we did. She has an awesome outgoing personality, loves to have fun and treats everyone with respect as equals. I love people like that, who make you feel comfortable to be you and never allow for a quiet or awkward moment!
After checking in, we headed up to our room to dump our stuff before having lunch. The guy at the front wanted our visa info and Sam showed me the yellow slip we got at the airport which of course I couldn't find. So I went into a panic, thinking I had lost my visa. I emptied every single pocket in every bag trying to find it. I swore I kept it in my passport but could not find it there.. shit. I was going to have to apply for another and pay god knows how much! This is what was going through my mind. Sam went down to see if he could check in on just his, which was fine, but found out in the meantime that the visa is actually stuck inside our passport, and that piece of yellow paper was just the receipt of payment! Ah! Relief! My panic soon disappeared and my hunger came back. So we headed up to the rooftop restaurant and had first meal there - the Mexican burger. So so SO good! Food in Nepal had been very hit and miss, so it was awesome to find somewhere that was guaranteed a success with every meal.
After lunch Sam wandered off outside to check out what was around us while I wanted to have a nap, that's when I heard a knock on the door - Aneka! It was so good to see her! Conversation flowed easily and we had a great time catching up. She'd only been in Nepal a couple of days and already had some great stories. Man that girl always has cool shit happen for her. She was in a small hilltop village called Nagarkot and met a local who took her to his family farm where they were growing loads of weed! I have to admit I was feeling a tad jealous at this point, the closest Sam and I had come to any weed was sharing that hash joint with the Spanish guy while trekking.
We headed out for dinner to Thamel and Aneka being Aneka got us walking and figuring out the way ourselves. Up until this point Sam and I had been getting taxis everywhere and getting insanely ripped off at the same time. We soon figured out Thamel was an easy, straightforward 20min walk from Durbur Square, and we had been paying 200 ($2.50) rupees each way by taxi! Our first time we paid 500 rupees!
We found a restaurant that sold Tongba, so Aneka could try it. This time we all got our own individual ones, and they came out in wooden jugs instead of the silver. They were huge! So we spent hours drinking and talking, laughing and just generally enjoying ourselves. This was the first real time since we left Australia that Sam and I had drinking company. It's nice to have someone else for a change. I mean I love Sam to death don't get me wrong, but when you're together nonstop day in, day out, it's just nice to have someone else to talk to.
There were some locals smoking hash by the shesha and Aneka decided to go ask them to share, so soon a joint was being passed around our circle. It's crazy how different our night becomes when with Aneka! She has some balls on her that one. Sam and I would never have the guts to ask a group of guys like that. I guess from the years of traveling on her own she's grown that confidence, she'd have to or she'd be bored shitless!
We didn't leave til after midnight when the restaurant basically kicked us out. This was definitely the latest Sam and I had been up since leaving Australia! We're always in bed by 7 or 8pm, lame I know but that's what we'd become with all our trekking etc.
The walk back to Durbur Square was much quieter, no scooters, tuk tuks or taxis beeping every second in your ear and trying to dodge all the people and traffic in a skinny arse street. We had the whole street to ourselves. It was spooky! Nepal really isn't a late night kind of country, after 9.30pm everything shuts down and it becomes ghost town. Kind of crazy when during the day it's so mental and loud.All the tuk tuks from the day were lying around the place with the driver fast asleep,I have no idea how they managed to sleep while being crammed in a 2 person seat like that and their feet up on the bike handle bars... Drivers were also sleeping in their taxis. It kind of made me sad to see. It would be freezing for one, not to mention lonely and uncomfortable. I suddenly found myself with a new respect for angry and demanding taxi drivers who try rip you off every moment they have.
We walked past one taxi who had his window slightly down as he was sitting in the driver seat. Both Aneka and I instantly got a whiff, but Aneka of course was the one to blurt it out "Woah! Smell that weed!" Sure enough he was getting high. Well what else can you do as a poor local Nepalese guy who lives in his taxi? He noticed us looking back at him and talking, so he ended up driving the taxi over to us and asking where we want to go. He thought we wanted a ride! ha! Aneka asked him straight up "Dude, can we have some of your weed?". I cannot believe it but the guy actually gave us a chunk! he even gave us paper to wrap it up in! He didn't have papers to roll a joint, but still what a legend. He didn't ask for any money out of us, he just gave us weed. Seriously love local Nepalese people. I have to admit I felt bad afterwards that we took this poor mans weed when that's probably all he has to get through a cold night. But the whole scenario was hilarious at the same time. Aneka is so random!
We said goodbye to Aneka at her guesthouse, which was a couple meters down the road from ours. She had a bus at 7am to catch so we were feeling pretty sorry for her. By this stage it's 1am and all the buildings are locked up with roller doors, uh oh, we didn't even think to check about ours! Sure enough It's locked. There's a doorbell so we ring it, and we ring it, and we ring it.... No answer. We do this a few times over 5 or 10minutes and then I sit down as panic reaches and I realize we'll be spending the night on the street. How come they didn't tell us there was a lockout?? We head back to Aneka's to see if we can follow her in and share her room, but her place is locked to, which she obviously had a key for. Sam ends up holding down the doorbell so it just keeps ringing nonstop.Sure enough that does the trick!! The night duty guy was obviously sleeping through it. Thank god for Sam's persistence. It was freezing and I didn't want to be spending the night in the cold with the millions of dogs everywhere! Nepal has so many dogs, and in a big city like Kathmandu there seemed to be extra. They congregate in huge packs and all bark together non stop all night. Sam calls them dog parties lol.
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