Dinner with Milan and Dennis at the homestay

Today started out nicely with a lie in and leisurely breakfast but soon became a day of hassles. We have decided we're going to Pokhara next so started by getting our bus ticket. We then visited Deepak, who had organised our short trek from Kathmandu to ask him about treks and costs from Pokhara. We had also emailed a few companies yesterday asking for suggested 5-7 day treks and costs. When the responses started coming in, the negotiations started and it became a game of playing one off against the other to get the best deal ... eventually Deepak pulled out all the stops and matched one of the other companies so we ended up booking with him after many phone calls. We've chosen to do a 7 night, 8 day trek in Mardi Himal. Its much less busy than the Annapurna base camp or Poon Hill treks as its only been established a few years and this appeals to us.

Next we had to pay ... we prefer to pay in cash than to use a card as they charge so off to the cashpoint ... the computer says a resounding NO to all our cards for some reason. So, a quick dash to the other side of Thamel and back to the homestay, check our balance, all fine and no emails from the bank. Our card reader also isn't working so we can't log into our accounts online ... weird! Perhaps its just temporary problem. Anyway, no time to investigate now ... we decide to pay on credit card for the trek which will cost us an extra 3% so isn't ideal. We are running short of cash so are really pleased when the boys from the homestay offer to make us dinner tonight. Another dash across town to pay for the trek, first Farida's credit card is refused but luckily it goes through the next time ... phew! We still can't get any cash though. We have only a few hundred Nepalese Rupees ... enough for some croissants for the bus journey tomorrow and that's about it. We'll have to email the bank later.

Dinner with Milan and Dinnis from the homestay if lovely (Milan is far left) Homemade daal soup, vegetable curry, rice and popadoms. Then an early night as we have a bus to catch in the morning.