Namaste!...

Kathmandu, Nepal

Hello! Namaste! Happy Diwali! We've managed three days in Kathmandu without getting sick or losing our money or getting lost. Wow. Yes, wow. That little word about describes it! Our heads are spinning, but we're happy and healthy and just ate a fantastic Nepali dinner of rice and dahl (lentils), curried vegies, naan (flatbread), curd (yogurt), fried spinach, and milk tea. Incredible. I'm at an Internet place in the heart of chaos. Very calm in here, however!

So, some random thoughts:

Kathmandu, Thamal district - Chaos, colors, crows, crazy drivers, chaos, noise, people everywhere. Ancient temples with incredible carved wood statues, decorative pillars, carvings on the buildings like something out of Lord of the Rings, old brick buildings with incredibly carved bricks (how do they do that?) in an alleyway of shops, shops, shops, and more shops. Poop and garbage and who-knows-what everywhere. The most beautiful dresses on the Nepali women, sparkling and colorful and graceful (both the women and the dresses). Smells - cooking food, burning garbage, other smells where you just have to stop breathing for a minue. Dirt, grime, masses of electrical wires going everywhere (obviously they didn't have Holden Utilities working on their lines!), narrow streets (we'd call them one-lane alleys) filled with people, cars, motorcycles, bicycle rickshaws, bicycle pedlars, all going both directions, vehicles constantly honking. Shop after shop of colorful, beautiful clothing, jewelry, Himalayan crafts. When I say shop - imagine alley, both sides constant shops and stands and sellers, going on and on in all directions, winding seemingly endlessly like a labyrinth. Chaos...but we're learning how things work.

Music, mostly Western. The first night here it was Eric Klapton on our rooftop, last night on our walk through the maze of streets, back from dinner, we heard a band (playing in a bar above the streets) playing Bob Marley's No Woman No Cry, one street over another band playing the same song, slower version. Right now I hear Bad Moon Rising (Credence Clearwater?). Today Loreena McKinnett blared (sort of surreally I must say) out of a shop - block out all other noises and you're in a whirling amazing movie of sights, colors, movement, beauty, poverty, filth, oh yeah, chaos...but with the music you can almost make it all slow down...

We've wandered the streets of Kathmandu now for three days and are feeling good - we managed to buy tickets today for the public bus we will take tomorrow to Shivalaya where we'll start trekking - takes about 11 hours and from what we can guess, it's only about 70 miles?

We arrived in Kathmandu in the midst of the country's 2nd biggest festival - Diwali - The Festival of Lights. Quite the scene (and noise), with fireworks and firecrackers blasting everywhere, incredible designs on the streets (mandalas?) made with colored sands, beans, leaves, etc., lights strung across streets and buildings - beautiful strings hanging from rooftop to ground like sparkling curtains - loud parades of motocycles, trucks full of people singing and banging drums, kids singing at shop entryways (like Christmas caroling?). It's a 5-day festival (we arrived on the 2nd day) and many businesses close early or aren't open at all (thus our delay in getting out of town on the bus).

We're staying in one of the "budget" hotels in the Thamal district in the heart of all this activity - but it's back on a little alley, so all of a sudden, the chaos drops about 100-fold, and there are plants and trees, giant bamboo screening us from the next guest house. Lots of rooftop gardens on these guesthouses - flowers and potted plants and small trees - very lovely to sit on our rooftop and have a pot of Nepali milk tea! The place has its quirks, but the room is pleasant - the bathroom - well, we won't describe it to our folks - but all in all, a good and convenient place to stay.

Hey, right now the band is playing Leaving on a Jet Plane!

Today we walked over to the Yak and Yeti Hotel (supposed to be the most famous hotel in Nepal - the name alone made me want to see it!). Very ritzy. Kind of bizarre to have this little enclave of incredible wealth amongst all this squalor. It's a palace, literally. We used their restrooms (Yes!), and wandered the grounds, there were people playing tennis (who stays there anyway? - I guess a lot of climbing groups for one). Anyway, we checked out the rates just for curiousity's sake. Cheapest room is $200 per night, up to about $625 for deluxe treatment. We're in the Shangri-La Guesthouse. Costs us $3 per person per night. And who can beat our little rooftop teashop? Hmmm...think we'll stay where we are!

Wow, now the band is playing another great hit - every move you make, every step you take... etc. What's the name of it?

So anyway. Tomorrow we head off for 7 weeks of hiking the Himalayas (our flight to Bangkok is December 11 and we'll spend another 3 or so days back in Kathmandu before that).

Our hike begins at Shivalaya (end of the road) where the early Everest climbers used to have to start. Now most people opt fly into the tiny airstrip at Lukla, which we'll walk to in about 6 days or so. Then on to Tengboche Monastery (on the trail to Everest base camp) where we're hoping to be on November 4 for a major celebration there. Everest base camp is next, with a jaunt up Pala Katar for views of Everest (since you can't actually see Mount Everest from the base camp). Then exploring to Cho Oyu base camp and some incredible lakes, Ama Dablam base camp, and various Sherpa villages along the way.

Just FYI here's some elevations:
Kathmandu - 4500 ft
Shivalaya - 5830 ft
Lukla - 9240 ft
Everest Basecamp - 17,620 ft
Kala Patar - 18,300 ft.

So it's all uphill from here! Actually it's up down up down up down up down, you get the idea.

So that's it for now. I'm not sure we're be able to download pictures tonight or not, we'll see how it goes. Otherwise, see you somewhere up in the Himalayas!

Namaste!