there's a lizard in my backpack....

They say that what you dream about at night is your brain's way of reviewing the days events, what and who you thought about and what you did. Last night I dreamt that the Dalai Lama was my friend and I brought him to walk the Bodnath stupa with me at 600...it was such a happy and peaceful dream. Considering what I was really thinking about when I went to sleep, a happy and peaceful dream was not what I was expecting.

I was eating dinner in the garden, with my backpack on the ground, open. I was getting up to leave, closing my pack and i heard a noise like the chirp of a gecko. I put my pack on, went up to my room, and just sat on the bed thinking about my day. I went to pull some books out and I heard what I thought was chirping again, but louder. Creepy things and me...not a good mix...I went downstairs and asked the hostess if there were small lizards in Nepal. She said yes and I said "mmmm I think I have one in my backpack"! She called the monastery gate "security" guy and he came up to find not a gecko but a RAT! It was not chirping I had heard...but a rat squeaking to get the f#$k out of my pack! I was carrying a backpack on my back with a RAT IN IT!!!!! Needless to say it was a scene...every time he said he had gotten it out of my room...I relaxed in for the night, and there it was lurking along the baseboards. 3 times he tried...3 times he failed....I slept in another room. I finally fell asleep around 2am. What can you do...creepy things are just a way of life here. Don't get me wrong I screamed and ran...but seriously what can you do...as they say, when in Rome! I was still up to walk with the pilgrims but may bail on my walk to the Hindu temple today and just pack it up and move into Kathmandu to meet my trekking group. I might even change my clothes today!....have been in the same ones as when I left Vancouver...a hippie skirt and t-shirt are THE best travel clothes I have to say...