Shower bar...hmmm

Ok, final blog post from holiday as it's the last day and we leave this evening. Got back from Tibet the day before yesterday having had a great time there and enjoyed some spectacular views of Everest, on the day we did the trek to base camp we had clear skies although the camping at the base was bloody freezing and we woke up to ice on the tents - don't think I'll be planning any mountaineering expeditions anytime soon. The roads were mostly dirt tracks, and the last day of the journey back to Nepal was pretty hairy as it was alongside a gorge where the were building the road and we saw one overturned lorry which has misjudged the bend but luckily had wedged in the corner so's not to have fallen down the ravine. We also ended up having the second medical emergency of the trip which didn't involve any of our group, but on the windy road about 15km from Kathmandu we encountered a motorcyclist who had just collided with a lorry and had smashed his knee, wrist, and chin, the locals didn't really seem to know what to do and were trying to get him to stand up (impossible with an open fracture) so the other medic and I ended up patching him up as best we could using what was in the group's medical bag and dispatching him to hospital in an ambulance which was a landrover with no equipment aside from a padded bench in the back, but hopefully he should be ok.

Spent most of yesterday shopping as trying to get rid of the rest of my money, only got about 10 quid left now so will see what sort of tat I can get for it. Had a fun meal last night where we all had to sit on the floor traditional style and people did local dancing while we did endless toasts with the local rice spirit, then a few of us wanted to go out afterwards and in one of our worse decisions ended up in the nearest place to the hotel that was open which was called "Lips Shower Bar" which probably says it all, but it was good fun, then 4 of us ended up in the Full Moon bar in the backpacker area til goodness only knows what time this morning, was great for people watching in terms of all the people who had properly tuned in and dropped out, man!

Almost managed to avoid tasting the notorious yak butter tea in Tibet, but we got made to have some on the last morning, and it actually wasn't quite as bad as I'd expected, although still pretty rank. Imagine milky tea with melted rancid butter and salt in it, and you're pretty close, the smell is worse than the taste as yak butter has a distinctive aroma, and I only managed a sip, but I suppose it had to be done. Yak cheese on the other hand is quite nice, like a strong cheddar. The food we had when camping was generally very good as we had a Nepali chef with us so it was mostly yak curry/veg curry and stuff, but they obviously ran out of provisions by the last day as we ended up having spam curry which was actually quite good but messed up a few stomachs I think. Have survived pretty much unscathed so far, but keeping my fingers crossed that I manage to stay out of trouble today as got 14 hour flight ahead.

Going to go now as a couple of the group are leaving early to fly to other destinations (lucky gits) whereas the rest of us have til 5pm to hang around before we leave, so going to start packing and do the last bit of shopping. See you all soon!