It seems I am not really able to get away from Kathmandu...
I went to Pokhara to do some more kajaking, but off-season already started and the classes are not that regularly anymore or to put it differently, my timing was really bad, I arrived on the day where a class just had started and for a new one I had to wait 3 full days. Since I already spent some time in Pokhara, just hanging around, I wasnt too fond of some more of that, especially because I would have made it back to Kathmandu just in time for my monastery course and that didn't really appeal to me. Still I wanted to be back on the river... That wish changed pretty quickly when it started to pour down for hours and I just imagined the river after that. To make sure I rented a bike  to have a look at the Seti and what I saw wasn't nice. The water was muddy brown and just gushing through the gorge. The height and the velocity might have been an interesting thing to try but honestly, I don't want to stick my head (repeatedly) into something with that colour... Additonla to that I stayed in a very strange guest house where the owners started yelling for their son who had an amazingly strong voice himself  at around 6 am. The same kid tried to pee on my backpack when I refued to give him sweets which I didnt had and I had my first cockroach in that place as well.... All signs were pretty explicit... So I took the bus back to Kathmandu and spent some more time with friends. The cockroach problem is not gone, but since I don't store any food in my room and as long as they don't crawl over me, I think I can live with them. If anyone of you wants to tell me now that they are vicious, deathly creatures I have to get away from, please don't, I guess my chances of avoiding them in any other place are rather slim!
It's really hot here, so it's not my most active time of the trip, but the city grows on me (except Thamel, of course) and my haggling skills are getting better and better. I probably still pay tourist prices, but even those are lower now and I don't give up too easily :) I even bought a kurtha (traditional clothes) for a reasonable price. OK, I have to admit I have to thank Sita for the price, haggling in Nepali makes a huge difference ;)
Tomorrow I'll move to Kopan Monastery and join a 10 days course about tibetan buddhism and mediation and if I read the rules correctly, I wont be allowed to bring a mobile, use the phone or internet, so I will be off the grid for the next 10 days. I have no idea what I will do after the course, when I am leaving Nepal and what to do in Thailand, but since I knocked over all of my plans so far, it might finally be a wise decision to not make any plans at all ;)