4th May - Faff Day

Up late as late night last night. Spent the morning having a leisurely breakfast at the Northfield Cafe and catching up on my blog and photos etc.

Johnnie has a problem with his flights back to Tamil Nadu in India as the company has gone with are on strike. Expedia India sent an urgent email asking him to call immediately. They have messed up a connecting flight and suggested an impossible alternative where the connecting flight leaves before the first flight arrives. Why are company service centers sooooo incompetent???!!!!! I am still shocked at the utter incompetence of Vodofone UK. I still have to sort this out when I return to the UK.

We phoned the Expedia emergency number and gave up after 40 mins of being on hold and £5.30 in cost! Johnnie asked an Indian friend to then try calling as it is much cheaper from India than Nepal. He was on hold for 1 hour on 2 different lines and still did not get though. We both sent multiple emails to them and no response at all! Rubbish!

This whole episode put a really downer on the day and it really frustrated Johnnie and was just a waste of many hours. He has no idea at the moment what date he can fly home. His visa expires on the 7th and that is when his original flight was booked for....

I really want some exercise now and get out of the big city into the mountains. I will head off once this head cold goes and Johnnie leaves to return to India. I am planning on biking to Pokhara and then trekking for a few days. I still have a cold and was not feeling up to a run (especially with the business of the streets and the bad pollution in Kathmandu). About 10% of the locals wear face masks because of the pollution. I went for a swim for an hour or so instead and did 200 lengths. I felt much better afterward.

Johnnie had still had no success with his flights by the time I returned in the afternoon.

I spent several hours on the internet at the Northfield cafe organising photos and trying to catch up on my blog (but failing miserably due to the rubbish internet connection).

Emma, Ang and Liam joined us for the evening at the cafe. It is Emma's last night in Kathmandu and she flies home to the UK tomorrow. She very kindly offered to take some things of mine back to the UK so that I do not have to post them. It meant that I spent time organising all of my things and throwing out clothes and equipment that I do not need. Emma took a whole bag with her. Thanks Emma!

I was not hungry but the others went off for burgers etc.

Chilled night as Emma has early flight.

A bit of a nothingness day..... I'm starting to get bored of Kathmandu now after the crazy pace of life in the months beforehand.