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After yet another uncomfortable night on a hard bed, the norm here seems to be a wooden bed with just a thin wadding mattress! We awoke early to watch the sunrise over the mountains. We went up on the roof of the hotel, it was very cold, but the view was worth it, although the colour changes were not as spectacular as the sunrise at Sarankot.
At breakfast we had our usual pot of nepali tea, which seemed to have been made with watered down milk and not creamy like usual ( more on this later ). We decided to walk down to the town, the road was so steep that cars cannot drive up it and have to use a much longer route. Some of the houses we passed were built in medieval times made of red brick and intricate carved windows, only to have roller doors fitted!
We tried to organise transport for going to Lumbini tomorrow, the hotel was not much help, they said that the only option was the local buses where our rucksacks have to be on the roof with people sitting next to them (heard many tales of rucksacks being looted then thrown off ).
We decided to enquire about a taxi, we found the bus park as that is where they always are, because of the steep hills the taxis are old 4x4 jeeps. We have hopefully arranged for a taxi to collect us tomorrow morning at 9.30?
There is no tourist bus as this is not a main tourist area at the moment, just a stop over destination. We grabbed a taxi back to the hotel as the roads are too steep.
When we got back to the hotel we asked for a pot of tea, only to be told that there was only enough milk for one cup each, ahh so that was why it was watered down this morning!
We went for a long walk in the surrounding forest, it was a refreshing change of scenery and was in the shade then on to the grass land, the views down into the valley below are amazing you can see all the terraced farm land.
We returned to the hotel in need of a drink of some kind, only to find it deserted, there was no one at reception or the restaurant, Ray tried the office only to find a young kid with his feet up watching tv, by this time Ray was getting angry as we have paid western prices for this hotel. After two hours Ray discovered some of the staff playing cards in the conference hall, after an exchange of words we eventualy got some tea lol.
The waiter was very attentive this evening, lighting a candle for us, although l would rather have had a clean tablecloth, this one had not been washed for ages. Ray ordered a lassi but they had run out, so that displeased him even more lol. A guy came over and apologised about there not being anyone about earlier, l guess he was the manager, but he did not introduce himself.
We cannot wait to leave.
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