week 2: the ending.

So where were we in this increasingly length and irregular recount of my adventures? Oh yes: the end of week 2.

After dinner (the awesome vege dinner) we met up with Stina's group. They were at this place which was meant to be "the place" go to in Nepal. It was dead. Not a single other soul apart from her gang. She vowed to inflict pain on her friend that recommended the joint. Did I mention I already liked this chick?

So they had dinner at this place and since it was probably more dead than that dead donkey you saw three yrs ago in Cairo, we decided to find another place. This became decidedly more difficult than it should have been. Oh yes, places were open. Many places. The problem was, apart from the staff, no one else was there. Nepal may have ample places to go out, it just doesn't have the patronage.

Eventually we came to a reggae-themed place. It was nice, with an outdoor seating area. We sat and talked for a while. Luckily for me, Stina and I happened to sit right next to each other. What a coincidence, no?

The list of topics in our initial conversation ranged from: "so, what exactly do you do for work?" to "existentialism has an interesting view point on life!" Yes folks, I'd bumped into one of THOSE people: the sort I instantly click with and start talking philosophy, while sharing my scornful/cynical view of the world with a dash of my sardonic sense of humour. Did I mention I liked this girl a lot?

We went to another place after the first bit was shutting. At this stage, it was like 11pm. Basically, the Nepalese become very sleepy after like 9. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that they have regular power cuts in the country. But anyway, it meant that most places were shutting, so we ended up at a place called, (I kid you not) Tom & Jerry's. Yes, it seems the cartoon characters have their own establishment. And one that kiddies should not visit. Well not legally anyway.

It was a nice enough place: had an open fire inside, so was nice and toasty. Ahh that fire would serve me well later, no that I'd be sane enough to read the social dynamics well. But I digress. It was a nice, warm and cozy place. And it seemed like where the ex-pat's hung out, meaning at least there'd be SOME people who spoke English. This is a big thing when, for the majority of the time there, you've had to either resort to talking retard-ish (you know? Me drink water. WAAAAA-TEEERRRRR. *drinking hand gesture* etc- coz obviously talking slower in a language they don't understand will always help).

Stina and I kept talking and getting to know each other. Jimbo, however, seemed to make friends with some English Army dude. This may seem slightly homosexual, but then we were informed that English Army dude was buying all of Jimbo's drinks, and really, isn't the delusion of being homo worth free drinks? No? Well, you can take that up with Jimbo: he obviously disagrees!

Stina and I chatted, slowly distancing ourselves from the group. Two of her friends headed home. One was her manager, Alf and the other was another Asian chick, Christy. We we're sure they were sleeping together. May be she wanted a promotion? (ED note: I'm not suggesting you try this. Nor am I suggesting any stereotypes. It was just an observation, honest!)

Sometime later, Stina suggested we got sit next to the fire. By ourselves. I was in! I mean c'mon, girl suggesting sitting by fire (romantic spot) + by ourselves + nice conversation = one thing: an increase in population! Well, that's if certain things DON'T go to plan.

So we're sitting there chatting away. Now, we've established I kinda liked the girl. During the conversation, it became a bit...wierd. Don't get me wrong, she was an awesome girl. It's just that certain viewpoints she took up kept reminding me of another girl I had been with. One that I'd rather not remember. The more I talked to her, the more confused I became and the more she seemed like the other one. At one point, Jimbo interrupted and pulled me aside.

"Dude, what are you doing? You going to pick her up or what?! Her friends are like trying to pimp her out!"

I seriously did not know. Most guys in this situation would go one way (that'd be the increase in population way) but I, sadly, am not one of those guys. Call me wierd, but I wasn't ready to tackle the emotional whirlwind that would start up in me to handle all that. By the time I got back to her, the vibe was dying down anyway, so we chatted some more.

Except then she invited all of us back to their place. Confusing much?

We turned to leave and hailed a cab, when one of the other girls pointed out that one would not be enough. Before I could ask why, my question was answered: somewhere along the way, a group of Canadian guys had joined our convoy. I had no idea when this had happened. But hey, it was looking to be an interesting night so why not?

The group split and we found ourselves being driven to some part of Kathmandu that we were not aware of. Yes, exhaustion has an effect on the logic centre of the brain. Namely, it shuts it off.

The place quite posh as we pulled up. It had a night watchman and everything. Then we walked into Stina's room. Holy fuck! Her BATHROOM was bigger than that the Jimbo, Lexy and I were sleeping in! The room was huge! And they had one each!

The girls, in their drunken stupor, demanded music. This was kinda hard as all the had was a laptop with really crap speakers and no MP3's on it. Jimbo had his mp3 player, but with no way to hook it up to anything. What resulted was Jimbo putting his mp3 player in his ears and dancing away while the occasional masacre of Timbaland's ""way I are" escaped his lips as "Taaaakada, Takada, Takada takada, yeah, yeah". Concurrently, two of the girls looked at him and posed the "wtf is he doing?" look at me. Stina and one of the canadians started talking about Zoolander. One of the other girls and some of the other Canadians started passing around a joint.

Yes folks, just TRY and picture that with me: expensive hotel room, Jimbo dancing to the sound of music only he can hear, a debate about Zoolander and marijuana. What holiday would be complete without all that?!

And no, I didn't try any of the happy stuff. We all got kicked out shortly after, as no music = no vibe and the girls got tired. It's a bit of an anti-climax I suppose, but hey, the strangeness of the scenario more than made up for it.

Jimbo and I got a cab back home, laughing the entire way at the strangeness of it all. A week ago, we were sitting in Darwin, clubbing. No this happened in Nepal. After we jumped off a bridge. Twice. Life, indeed, had become a lot more exciting all of a sudden.