November 3, 2012

 Day 24.  Kathmandu

Another cold shower to start the day...  Liba, the four Czechs and I took the hotel van to Swayambhunath.  Busy, busy, busy!  It seems to be a mix of both Buddhist and Hindu, with perhaps some type of Hindu festival going on.  There were tons of tourist shops.  Most commonly heard phrase.... "you like, special price."  I've really just started to ignore them.  I hate to be rude, but.....  There were lots of beggars as well.  Some disabled, some (I suspect) with rent-a-baby.  None of them were shy!  There were also lots of monkeys running around, including lots of little ones.  For the most part they were pretty well behaved.  And, of course, lots of dogs, mostly quite docile.  We went for a lassi at a rooftop restaurant.  Vladka had purchased a singing bowl, which was quite nice.  Might have to look at them. 

On the taxi ride back to our hotel we went via many unpaved roads with the usual assortment of cars, trucks, motorcycles, bikes, pedestrians, and cows.  And, of course, endless honking of horns.  Everyone just seems so calm as they go from one near-miss to another.  We also saw a number of open-air butcheries along the way.  Not sure what type of animal they were chopping up, but I sure hope it didn't go bad too quickly.   

Once back to the hotel, we had about 45 minutes before meeting for lunch at 1.  I went to a cyber cafe for 30 minutes.  Nothing urgent on email, although there are several hundred messages I'll need to get through when I get home.  It looks like there was a WomanTours payment due November 1st.  Oops - I sent them a note to not kick me off the trip.  This was our last lunch with Helen and Steve.  Just as we were finishing lunch, Paule and Dennis arrived from their trek.  We chatted with them briefly and will meet them again for dinner.  Helen and Steve are off to Malaysia for five days before heading home to New Zealand.  Great folks; I'm so glad they were on our trip!  

Then - a bit of shopping.  However - the pushiness of the vendors is starting to get to me.  I saw some nice pashminas, but how many do I really need??  I went to Pilgrims bookstore and bought a few things - a book entitled The Climb, an Edmund Hillary book, and a Nepal picturebook.  Also a couple of magnets.  

Another box of cookies demolished...........