AND THEN THERE WAS ONE…….

….and then there was one…

I love group travel.

I love meeting people.

But I also love having some time to myself and probably even more so for these next few days as I unwind, get myself used to the thought that I am GOING HOME and I can now also start to look towards the next ‘chapter’ of my life and details that I still need to iron out.  Every time I think about going home I automatically smile.  I just can’t wait, I need to be around people I know and love-if only for 5 weeks-recharge my batteries, regroup and then back on the road again.

It was nice to not set the alarm this morning-but everyone knows when you don’t have to be up, you wake up and I was awake at 6am.  The power was still on at this point so I fired up the computer and tried to pump out a blog.  I am currently 10 days behind, which is not ideal, but I am okay with that as I can use the next few days as a catch up and I am heading home and any that I can’t finish I will have time when I get back.  I would like to think that my life is that exciting that I will blog every day at home, but it just isn’t, so this is where I will catch up on anything outstanding.

Breakfast was at 10.30am and I ate at our ‘usual’ place and I got asked this morning where my friends had gone.  They were all on their way on new adventures and I was the last woman standing.  It is a great little place for breakfast as it is outside in a small courtyard and ‘my’ table is in the sun which off sets the cool of the morning.  I bought a book with me this morning and even though the hotel has its own Wi-Fi, my hotel’s Wi-Fi connection was still in range and with a cup of tea, a great brekkie, internet and a book what else could you possibly need to kick off the day.  On my way back to the hotel I passed a jewelry shop and a necklace in the window caught my attention.  I always try and have a price in my head when I ask for prices on things, I guess it is a little game I play with myself to see how close I get to the price when I ask and it also draws an imaginary line on how much I want to pay.  That rule doesn’t always work, cause if I really like something and as long as it isn’t a crazy price, I will still pay it.  Anyway looking at the necklace I popped a price of 85USD on it and entered the shop.  The guy behind the counter was looking after the shop for his uncle, so he had to make a call and I did some bargaining via the nephew to his uncle then back to me.  It started at 135USD and I got the piece down to 90USD.  They didn’t take credit card and I didn’t have enough USD on me-well I did-but didn’t want to use them, so I told them I would come back this afternoon to pay.  It is a beautiful original piece of turquoise, coral and silver and it is a big piece and I love it. 

I spent the afternoon blogging and chillaxing till 3pm when the power went out.  So that was my sign to head out, pay for the necklace and get a late lunch.  It is really annoying just how much the power comes and goes in this country, it’s even worse than Ethiopia and that’s saying something.  From 17 January Nepal Electricity Authority increased the daily power cuts in Nepal. Life in Nepal is becoming a hassle with nine hours of power outage (called load-shedding) every day in Nepal.  Citing decrease in water levels in the rivers, Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) increased power cuts by two more hours from the existing seven-hours a day power outage schedule.  In the tourist area of Thamel, where we are, there is 4 to 5 hours of power outage in the morning and 4 to 5 hours of power outage late afternoon and evening every single day. So there is basically only 3 to 4 hours of electricity during the daytime in Thamel which makes life for everybody miserable.  It doesn’t seem to affect the food as they cook on burners and there are generators that keep the country moving, especially at night when you need lights.  It’s not so much the internet connections but the difficulty is recharging cameras, mobile phones and laptops.  I guess if you live here you just get used to it and are prepared when the power comes on.  The bad news is that power outage will soon increase further to 12 hours daily or more. Nepal cannot generate enough power and the power shortage will last for many years to come as no big hydro power station is being built at the moment due to unfriendly investment policies, strikes, labor problems and corruption at every stage of a new project.  Nepal faced power cuts of up to 18 hours a day during the dry season (February to June) last year.  Imagine that!!!!

When I walked back to the shop the uncle was in and I told him that I was here to collect a necklace from this morning and he went to the window and pulled it out.  They had put it back out the front to see!!!  Lucky no-one else came along to buy it-I would have been devastated!  He told me what a great buy I had and he did it as it was Diwali and is good luck to be nice to strangers.  Diwali is popularly known as the "festival of lights," is a five day festival which starts on Dhanteras, the thirteenth lunar day of Krishna paksha (dark fortnight) of the Hindu calendar month Ashwin and ends on Bhaubeej, celebrated on second lunar day of Shukla paksha (bright fortnight) of the Hindu calendar month Kartik. In the Gregorian calendar, Diwali falls between mid-October and mid-November. Diwali is an official holiday in India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Mauritius, Guyana, Trinidad & Tobago, Suriname, Malaysia, Singapore and Fiji.  For Hindus, Diwali is one of the most important festivals of the year and is celebrated in families by performing traditional activities together in their homes.  Diwali involves the lighting of small clay lamps filled with oil to signify the triumph of good over evil.  These lamps are kept on during the night and one's house is cleaned, both done in order to make the goddess Lakshmi feel welcome.  Firecrackers are burst because it is believed that it drives away evil spirits. During Diwali, all the celebrants wear new clothes and share sweets and snacks with family members and friends.

I decided to have Mexican for lunch.  I told you I am so OVER Nepalese food!  As I ate I could see a magnificent painting of Buddha at one of the nearby shops.  It was massive.  It would have been 2mx2m and I did my price thing and I was thinking I would pay 150-200USD for it.  It a beautiful black and white of his face on the side.  So after lunch I went in and asked the cost of the picture and you could have knocked me down with a feather-it was 2500USD.  I must have looked shocked and I asked 3 rimes that it was 2500 U.S dollars, U.S dollars-can I check that is US dollars.  He did say that there was a sale on we could take 20% off that.  Oh well- that makes it look much better at 2000USD.  NOT.  Well it was a beautiful picture and one that I will just have to lock away in my memory.  Seriously….2000USD….  Crazy.  While I was in the shopping mood- I couldn’t stop thinking about the ‘freckle’ rug from yesterday, so I stopped there on my way back to the hotel to make the purchase, I hope it looked as good as I remembered yesterday.  The shop owner remembered me and I had a choice of 2 and they still looked amazing.  He didn’t have a Visa terminal but his uncle had a shop around the corner, so we walked there and his uncle’s shop was a pashmina shop.  There were some beautiful ones on displays and when I asked the price it was only 14USD so I added that to my bill too-I wonder if that scam works every time and how many people walk out without buying one.  I believe I got sucked in-oh well it was beautiful…. And another thing I am going to have to find room for in my bag.  I stopped off at a bead store and walked out with 5 necklaces… talk about having a shopping day today.

I was back at the hotel at 7pm and then blogged again and watched TV.  I have started to get addicted to the TV show Revenge, so with a few episodes of that, blogging at chatting to people on Facebook I decided to pass on dinner as I had such a late lunch and Kate and I also hooked up online and have made a date to meet tomorrow night for dinner, which will be nice for me as it is my very last night of my World Odyssey so it will be nice to share it with someone and not on my own.