I went to bed last night to an epic display of thunder and lightening.

At home we rarely get these so whenever I see it, I just stare on in awe.

And of course take videos of it which you can find in the photo gallery at the end of yesterday’s blog.

I was sound asleep at midnight ready for yet another full night’s sleep.

Yeah, that didn’t happen.

I woke up a couple of hours later super itchy all over my body.

No, it wasn’t bed bugs or mosquito bites.   It was just me breaking out in hives as my body finally rejected all the unintended gluten I had eaten last week while in China and Tibet.

That’s how my gluten allergy manifests.   If I eat it over a prolonged amount of time, my body breaks out in hives.

I knew as I had the dishes over there that some, hell, maybe most, had some auspicious gluten hidden in them or the sauces they were served with.

I didn’t go into it blind and I knew there was a real possibility that would happen but I decided that as safe as I am 99.999% of the time, I would let this one slide.

And now here I was, at two in the morning, with a bunch of super itchy welts on my body.

Oh, what a great way to be woken up in the middle of the night.

Anyway, eventually I did fall back asleep and, wouldn’t you know it, by morning the hives were all gone.

Free Walking Tour

There’s a walking tour that goes at either 9am or 2:30pm and I had signed up for the afternoon one a couple of days ago and have kept rescheduling it.

Since today was my last full day here in Kathmandu it was now or never so, last night, I booked the afternoon tour for today.

I mean, there just was no way I was going to get up early enough to have breakfast and make a 9am start.

And then I woke up at 6:45 this morning.

So, I rescheduled yet again and this time I received a WhatsApp message from the tour guide.

It was just a welcome message but I actually took that moment to apologize for constantly rescheduling and asked him how many others were on the tour this morning.

“No more friends for you today sir”.

Oh, just me?

How about on the afternoon tour?

No friends on that one either.

Well, I mean, I really didn’t want to do a 1-on-1 tour and, honestly, I’m pretty sure he didn’t either so I just told him I’d reschedule for another day even though I knew full well today was my last day.

So, after another wonderous gluten-free crepe breakfast, I went on a truly free walking tour.

I mapped out all the places we were scheduled to visit and just went to them myself.

No tip at the end required!

In was nice to explore new parts of the city I had yet to visit.

I saw some cool temples and snapped a bunch of photos but the problem was I had absolutely zero context to what I was looking at.

It turns out that I am a really horrible guide in the city in Kathmandu.

Don’t worry Santosh, your job is safe.

By 11am I was done my “walking tour” and back at the hostel.

Time to relax and reset before I go out on my second adventure of the day.

A comfortable ride

At 1:30 I finally came out of my hibernation.

About 15km west of Kathmandu is the Chandragiri Hills.

Atop the hill lies the Bhaleshwor Mahadev Temple among other fun activities for people to do.

And to get there, you hop into a nice, bright red cable car for 10 minutes taking you on 2.4km ride to the top.

Of course first I had to actually get there.

Time to open up the InDrive app (Nepal’s version of Uber) and book a ride.

They have three different categories gradually increasing in price: Motorbike, Ride, and Comfort.

The motorbike was around $2, the ride was $5, and the comfort ride was $7.

Honestly, they were all pretty cheap options considering the ride is about a half hour to get there.

Now, as much as I’m intrigued about hopping on a motorbike again, there was just no way I was going to ride on one in this smog filled city.

And, hey, for an extra two bucks, why not splurge for the “comfort” ride which includes cars with a/c.

I booked my ride and imagine my shock when I shiny new Tesla showed up to pick me up.

Now this is comfort!

Chandragiri Cable Car

I arrived at Chandragiri Hills at just after 2pm and bought my ticket for the cable car.

The pricing for tickets here is skewed obviously favoring locals and those from neighboring countries.

For Nepalese residents, the price is 850npr ($8.50), for those from neighboring countries it’s 1360npr ($13.60) and then the prices go way up and are actually charges in US dollars.

Chinese nationals pay $16usd ($22) and everyone else, myself included, had to pay $23usd ($32).

I mean, it’s only fair that us tourists from more developed countries have to pay more.

I did immediately find an unexpected benefit to having this kind of ticket though – it allowed me to bypass the lineup to go on the cable car.

Instead of following everyone else towards the big line, I was ushered through a different turnstile labeled “resort guest entrance” and straight to the front of the line.

I tried not to make eye contact with all the locals as I sheepishly bypassed them in the line and entered the next cable car.

So this is what being a rich VIP feels like.

The top was bustling with people all over the place and then I recalled it was Saturday which meant the locals were out in full force.

In fact, besides myself, there were maybe 3 or 4 other non-locals there.

Along with the centerpiece of the Bhaleshwor Mahadev Temple, there’s also a couple of short ziplines, an area to ride a horse, and a sky cycling platform.

Temple, yes.

Zipline, meh, been there, done that, not a fan of heights anyway.

Sky cycling?

Hell no!

There is no planet where I hop on a bicycle and cycle myself across a steel rope over a canyon to the other side.

What the hell?   Who even thought of this idea?   Are they crazy?!?

There’s also a stairway to a viewing platform where you can get nice views of the mountains and cities down below.

Again, with my VIP ticket, I had access to the platform without having to pay an extra charge.

As for views, well, it was cloudy and smoggy, and I honestly didn’t see much out there but I’m told that on some days you can even see Everest in the far distance.

I grabbed some chicken sausage and smiley fries for lunch at the food court which, as you’d expect, wasn’t anything to write home about.

But, seriously, how could I pass over smiley fries?

I mean, c’mon, there’s a smiley face on my fries!

After lunch I headed back to the cable car to go back down the hill.

If I could recommend anything to future visitors, it would be to come in the morning rather than the afternoon as the line to board the cable car was so long.

But, then again, that didn’t matter for me cause I was able to bypass it yet again.

Oh, VIP treatment!   I love it!

No Tesla to take me home sadly and the fare was a tad higher and the ride a bit bumpier with a lot of stop and go because it was now rush hour traffic.

One more reason to go in the morning instead.

An uneventful last night

By 5pm I was safely back at the hostel.

And I…

Conked out!

Holy crap was I tired.

Guess I didn’t get enough sleep last night after all.

It was a full on nap too as I didn’t wake up again for a couple of hours.

I decided to just pop across the street to the French Bakery restaurant to get some gluten free pasta and another one of their amazing vanilla milkshakes.

Yup, true Nepalese food for my last night in Kathmandu.

I didn’t care.   It was great.

And it was a great day.

In the end, I really didn’t do that much but that’s exactly how I wanted today and, in fact, my entire time here in Kathmandu to be.

A simple, relaxing time in a far away, mysterious place in the world.

Tomorrow afternoon I start my slow journey home.

First I’ll stop in Bangkok overnight and then I’ll spend a couple of days visiting my brother in Osaka before I fly back home to Vancouver.

The trip’s not over yet, though!

I have some really cool stuff planned for my return to Japan and I can’t wait!