Unfortunately, this internet cafe is unable to load my pictures, so I'll just have to be descriptive in my writing. Oh, and I'm typing on a keyboard with only half the letters actually discernible, so that's a challenge too... but oh well. I'm in Kathmandu!
Grant and I arrived around noon from Singapore. They were showing wakeboarding videos on the airplane, so that got me pumped up fpr the upcoming boating season. But that can wait.
Kathmandu is a busy, bustling place. Our driver weaved through the maze of unlined, ill kept roads on the way to the hotel. Many streets are one lane... which doesn't mean they are one way! Drivers play a high speed game of chicken with each other, somehow knowing exctly when to swerve to narrowly avoid clipping each other or the pedestrians on the side of the road. The streets are dusty and congested, filled with people, motorbikes, bicycles, cars, trucks, bicycle rickshaws and stray animals, including cattle! The city is very similar to what I experienced in India.
After getting settled into our hotel, we set out to wander the streets a bit. A 15 minute walk brought us to Thamel, the main market disctrict in Kathmandu. A twisted labyrinth of narrow alleys, shop keepers compete for the attention of passerbys with the countless dealers on the street offering to get you higher than the mountains. It seemed almost every shop was either a trekking gear store full of imitation name brand items, an adventure company promising the lowest fares and the best trips, or a trinket souvenir shop. The occasional cafe or massage parlor was thrown in the mix too. Actually, souvenir shopping here is something I am looking forward to after our trek. There seem to be plenty of cool fabrics, hand carved items, soaps, and painting to bring back.
We walked back to the hotel and freshened up before heading out to dinner with our host here. He took us to a traditional Nepalese restaurant, where we had to take off our shoes and get marked with a bindi (a red dot on the forehead) before taking our place seated on a pad on the floor at our table. Dinner included momos, vegetable dumplings served with a spicy curry sauce, and then rice with curried vegetables, chicken, wild boar, and spinach. The restaurant also had a traditional Nepalese folk band, with a flutist, a drummer, a person playing an instrument that looks like a small violin held like a cello, and a singer. Accompanying the band were 6 traditional dancers performing folk dances. While the Sherpa people of Nepal are Bhuddist, the majority of the country are Hindus, which is reflected in the dances.
We are sightseeing tomorrow and then head to Lukla to begin the trek the day after!
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