After 5 days at Newa Chen it was time to move on…particularly as they had booked out my room to an obviously more acceptable person. I’m sorry…here’s another tip…you don’t just get to check out..even after such a short stay the head of the family came out to wish me well in my travels and for staying with his family. I was given a brass etched little picture of the house, all wrapped up and inscribed “with sweet rememberances Newa Chen family” Instantly forgot the bruised forehead and vowed to return.
Off to the bright lights of Thamel (OK maybe a bit of an exaggeration as “load shedding” happens every day for about 8 hours..and always in the early evening). Then all the little generators start up and the atmosphere, previously muggy, becomes almost solid. There are a lot of people walking around with face masks. I can’t go to this extreme…it would cover the grin.
Now staying at Hotel Mandap www.hotelmandap.com/ which is towards the edge of Thamel (and thus all of 2 minutes from the centre) Has brilliant coffee, bakery and the night manager, Binay, should be bottled and used as an example of how hospitality works. The rooms up higher get lots of sun and are a bit back from the road so you don’t feel you’re sleeping in the back of a damp taxi. The beds are made of the usual sub-continental shredded rock. Been there, done that…and have the camping mattress out of my bag and pumped up in a flash. Problem solved!...and did I mention the water is HOTHOTHOT……Woo Hoo…and there is an open fire in the restaurant which they get going in time for breakfast…oh yeah! As I’m staying for a few weeks and it isn’t high season the room rate is embarrassingly low..including breakfast (more high fiving here if I can find a counter party to participate)
(sorry about the cheesy grin…actually no, I’m not!)
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