Kathmandu Guesthouse

Kathmandu Guesthouse
Originally uploaded by nick_hardcastle

Monsoon has started. Although it is only 27 degrees in Kathmandu, twenty degrees cooler than in Saudi, the weather is less comfortable. I set the room fan on full power and dripped onto the bed. It was 8.30 p.m. and given the strange three hours fifteen minutes time difference between Nepal and Saudi, I shouldn’t have been tired. I woke a couple of hours later to a strange, loud clicking, a noise that had permeated a now forgotten dream. It became the focus of my attention, like persistent snoring, something that consciously you know that you should be able to ignore, but can’t. I stumbled across the room, sounds of distant thunder and the intense flashes of lightening signaling the onset of monsoon, to stop the rotation of the fan,. There was no knob or button I could find in the half light, so I poked the fan to one extreme of its arc. That did the trick, so I laid down again. The clicking began again, this time at the other extreme of rotation. Sighing and, silently I hope, cursing cheap hotels, I poked the fan again. This time my finger went through the wire guard and the rotor thwacked my fingertip. Shocked to full conciseness I switched on the light, bit of the fractured nail and found the lever that would stop the rotation altogether.

Irritating fans notwithstanding, the Kathmandu Guesthouse in Thamel has charm, with its garden and attractive courtyard restaurant. More charm that I would expect for twenty five dollars a night.