Today was a free morning for each of us to explore the local Thamel area bazaar, do some souvenir shopping, or just relax. We had a Nepali experience where a local assisted us to locate a mobile phone handset store to buy a cheap handset for Chris to have for the rest of our travels, as his phone [for some weird reason] won’t accept our TravelSim or the Nepali Sim we bought on arrival here. We have no idea what brand it is, except that it was made in India. At least it recognises the SIM card, and that’s all we need. The experience however was that this guy led us through lane after lane, turning corner after corner to take us to the Nepali shopping area rather than just being in the mainly tourist bazaar. We knew he would expect some sort of payment, and we were prepared to give him Rs200 however he assured us he didn’t want money, but would we help out by buying some food for him and his family. So we assume we got ripped off when he took us to a shop, and out came a big bag of rice and some cooking oil, and the shopkeeper showed us the calculator with the price of Rs1250. We said no to that, so another bag of rice, same size just different brand came out and we were shown the new price of Rs1150. In the end we said we’d just give a flat Rs1000, and our guide walked off with the rice and oil, and we were down a bit of money! At least he led us back to a place we recognised so we could get back to our guesthouse. We knew we needed the guidance so weren’t too annoyed at the expense, even though it was more than we wanted to give!

This afternoon was our last time with Raju, our driver. We went to the Narayantiri Palace Museum, which is the Palace of the now deposed Royal Family of Nepal. On June 1, 2001, Crown Prince Dipendra, the heir to the thrown, murdered nine of his royal family members, including his entire immediate family, before turning the gun on himself. King Birendra’s brother took the throne amid a flurry of suspicion and conspiracy theories. He would be the last king of Nepal. In 2008 the Nepali royal family was deposed, Nepal ceased to be a monarchy, and the royal palace in Kathmandu was converted into a museum open to the public. Finally, average citizens of Nepal and the rest of the world can get a glimpse of what it was like to live as the king of Nepal.

Unfortunately, security is extremely tight and no photographs are allowed. We even had to hand in our bags, and go through a security check including a body search. All the way through the self-guided tour of the Palace, there were security guards keeping watch, and outside there were military guards, some with weapons.

It was very sad to be saying farewell to Raju after our wonderful and very full 11 days with him. He drove with skill and competency through the amazing city and other Nepali traffic, rough roads, negotiating animals including dogs, monkeys, elephants, the places we needed him to get us to where he had never been before, and he took that van on roads it was never designed to go on! He has a very special place in our hearts. We all hugged, gave him a significant tip as a gift from us all, some small Aboriginal gifts, some Aussie toys and colouring books for his children, and a New Testament in both English & Nepali. He said he would read it, and we now pray that it will open his eyes to the Gospel.

Our last night in Kathmandu will certainly have its tinge of sadness.