Kathmandu Part Two
We returned to Kathmandu for 3 more nights of city after a seriously amazing couple days in Chitwan. Our lungs, throats, and minds were slightly clearer, and we were refreshed after having experienced such a bounty of nature. Of course this was all to change very quickly with our return to the scuzziness of Kathmandu.
Naturally, Kathmandu Guest House totally botched our reservation! We threw a few pointed words at them and ended up with a room that was next to the gift shops & salons. We probably should have learned our lesson the first time around, but we thought a second chance was due. I guess our optimism failed us this time. Wouldn’t recommend wasting your time with this place as we have. Here is the review we gave them on trip advisor:
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I wish this review could actually make a dent in this hotel’s business, but chances are it probably won’t.
I hate to give bad reviews, but seiously this hotel is definitely deserving of one. Right from the get-go this hotel was off on the wrong foot. Our reservation had been confirmed weeks in advance and our room had been given away to somebody who wanted to extend their stay. Sadly we weren’t the only ones in this situation. We were put up in what was seemingly a staff quarters room that night. It was pretty lousy for what we paid as there really wasn’t any compensation for the management’s error.
We were originally booked for a second visit a few days later and we decided to try a fresh start a give this place a second chance,…we are understanding of mistakes and didn’t want to mess around with finding another place. Apparently they hadn’t learned from their mistakes. The exact same thing happened again! This time we were given a room that was part of the the hallway where a number of shops are. It was clearly a room that isn’t in regular use.
Sadly I have to point out that the facilities in all of the rooms we stayed in were pretty tired (a bit expected with a heritage hotel), but it was clear that ours weren’t maintained too well. We had just come from India where facilities are often tired too, but really there wasn’t an excuse in this case.
Aside from the lousy rooms and the errors in all of our reservations what really topped things off was the fact that customer service really lacked! Particularly with one of the lobby guys who kept changing his story and not giving straight answers to us. Asking simple questions about our situation became a real runaround!
I’m sure lots of people enjoy their stay here, but be warned that you might not be one of the lucky ones. In a place with over a hundred rooms it’s a far cry from a “guesthouse”, and you can probably bet that your experience will be reflected more so as a number than a name!
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Once settled we hit the pavement running in an effort to collect all of our stuff that was made during our time in Chitwan. The jeans turned out so well that we both put in an order for another pair. Excessive right!… but seriously, how could we not considering how good they worked out with the first run. If you are ever in Kathmandu, hunt down a little place called “Rainbow Jeans” in Indra Chowk… trust me you won’t be disappointed!
All other items turned out great too, but needed minor fitting tweaks to get them just right. Not bad Kathmandu tailors… not bad at all! We wandered for a bit after that.
After all the hustle to get our stuff we were starting to run low on energy, and the terrible air was already starting to grab hold of our lungs. We were already starting to hoark up crap like everybody else around us. This meant lunch time!… we were in serious need of soup and momos. Found a great little spot called “8848″ that was almost empty and served up some of the meanest plates of momo we could ask for! Mouthwatering deliciousness.
Bellies full, we went to cap the night off with a cover band. Things were just starting to sound good and then the band decided to take a break. They were quickly replaced by a cd of elevator versions of Bob Marley classics. It went from painful to torturous,… it had us running out the door within 3 songs.
At daybreak we thought it was about time to visit Swayambhu temple which overlooks Kathmandu city. This holy site is definitely worth checking out, but it’s full if hustlers trying to sell chatchke and street women pushing photo-ops of their sad children for a few rupees. This kind of clouds the notion of this place being a peaceful spot. That said, the view is great and the hundreds of monkeys are really entertaining!
On our last day we did a little more sight seeing and walked to Dubar Square. A funny thing happened here… We arrived in the square and went to the ticket booth to pay the “foriegner price” (3x the local price) for our entry tickets into the temples. We were handed our tickets and a map/brochure and headed for the main center temple. When we got there we were told that our tickets were not valid for this temple and needed to buy other tickets to enter. WHAT!!!??? At this point we realized that we had been scammed,… or at least sorely mislead. If these tickets were not good for the main temple, then just what the hell were they good for? We we walked back to the booth to ask a few questions. Apparently the tickets are valid for all of the other temples which can be visited simply by looking at them from the outside since the majority of them are small open-air monuments. The other few that required an actual “entrance” were included with these tickets however were not open for viewing while we were there. I’d just like to thank the assholes at the ticket booth for pointing this out before we actually bought the tickets! Can’t people just be straight-up anymore?
After this we cut our losses and decided that we were in fact done with Kathmandu and started looking to brighter horizons in Thailand!
On our last morning I blew up at the inept guy at the front desk of our hotel for one last time… he pulled out on our free airport transfer so I had to give him a piece of my mind. With that we hired a great taxi driver and began our long journey to paradise!!!
Ouch!
Wow guys… that blows hard! I guess desparate people do pretty low down things to get by… bait and switch is the worst tho:( I can’t wait to see these jeans! I love me some denim!
It was nice of you guys to give the guest house another chance, too bad they didn’t deserve it :-S Glad you’re relaxing now in Thailand!
Your TripAdvisor review is still so understanding and patient… You guys are even nice when you’re cutting someone down… it’s really quite remarkable
Happy to hear you didn’t fall ill in Nepal, as your aunts’ did long ago. Can’t wait to see all the tailored outfits.
Where are the pictures of the hundreds of entertaining monkeys???