Chills and Thrills in Nepal

Riots in the streets

Bhote Kutsi River

The Last Resort

In our Canyoning gear

Sweet looking wet suits...haha sort of

Gotta love that fresh mountain air

Soo peaceful

View from atop the Temple

Amazing.



A zillion Prayer Flags

Nagi Gompa

Tongba time!

Deeeelicious!

Rickshaw driver love

Renan driving the Rickshaw

Missed all the action

Being silly

More Temples

The Super Market

Namasteee

Street Kids

View from the top

One of the 78 temples in the Square

Durbar Square

Kali

Cheese!

Crazy Streets

Rickshaws taking a break in front of the temple

Blessings

Zen

:)

Flower Offerings

And I thought my bag was bad...

Curios

Pigeons love the Buddha

Millions of Pigeons

Buddha Love

Here's to looking at you kid

Don't forget to walk clockwise...

More Stupas

Smiling in front of the Stupa

Namaste from chilly Nepal!
It has been an interesting few days here in Nepal. We landed here on Saturday morning and have been bumming around Kathmandu ever since. Nepal is a pretty amazing country, aside from the few "minor inconveniences" that we have been facing so far.
1.Although there is no snow on the ground as I had expected it is quite cold here, especially at night. Since our hotel room, and most buildings here for that matter, have any heat or insulation, the temperature it is outside is the temperature it is inside...so I have been sleeping with all of my clothes on and about 7 blankets every night, which is OK as long as you don't have to pee in the middle of the night...then it becomes a 20 minute inner battle of whether or not to actually get up out of the warms covers and onto the freezing bathroom tile.
2.Nepal has a shortage of power so everyday, twice a day, there are scheduled 3 hour power cuts. So 6 hours a day, during main peak times, usually 9-12 am and 6-9 pm there is no power. The times change everyday so you are never exactly sure when there is going to be darkness. It can get a little depressing when its cold and dark. Thankfully our hotel has a generator which controls one light in our room. Three is however no light in the bathroom so I have been taking my evening showers by candlelight. But there is however real hot water in hotel, no geysers, but actual hot hot water. AMEN!
3.There has been riots in the streets over the price of petrol so it has made life difficult being able to navigate in or outside the city. Thousands of people have been crowding in the street to block off the main highways so travel is impossible. The government in response has been making 12 hour power cuts to put pressure on the people- AKA, more darkness, now instead of being some of the day...it's all day.But thankfully Nepal has a large selection of delicious Nepalese beers which make life easier passing the time and warming your bones at night. I have grown quite a fondness for Tibetan Tongba (hot beer) which tastes a bit funky at first, but after you get use to it, its quite nice :)
But aside from the hassles, I am really loving it here. The Nepalese people are really wonderful and the countryside is amazing. The first few days we walked around, checking out the city and the temples (which there are a gazillion) and eating lots and lots of momos. We decided to rent a motorcycle, but unknown to us it was on the first day the strike started..oops. So we got a map, routed out where we wanted to go, started to drive and bam!- one thousand people blocking off the street. People we shouting and they had set fires in the middle of the road to block people attempting to pass. As we tried to drive through them, people started to crowd around our bike and yell at us in Nepalese so we decided it was a better idea to find another route. Although the scene was a bit scary, I really wasn't frightened at all because I knew we were not their targets. Although they were making a lot of noise, no one had any guns or sticks or anything to throw at us. They were just trying to prove a point. So after encountering about 5 more road blocks or so, we figured out side streets or narrow dirt roads that would wind around the other side so we could pass the people in the street. It ended up taking several more hours then expected but we made it safely. As if that wasn't enough of an adventure, our destination as the Nagi Gompa Buddhist Nunnery that was perched high atop a mountain inside a national park. The ride up the mountain road was impossibly difficult. It wasn't really a road at all, but a steep pathway of rocks. How our moto made it up and down safely is an absolute miracle. Buddha was watching our for us. Once we reached the top, it was unbelievable. It was so peaceful up there. The way the clouds hung over the Himalayas in the distance made it look more like a painting than something from real life. We walked around the grounds of the nunnery, popping into the temple and the gardens to check it out. The resident head monk, who didn't speak anything but Tibetan gave us a tour. We had no idea what he was saying, but nodded enthusiastically at whatever he said and laughed when he laughed. I am sure if we could have understood what he said he would have been quite funny. The smile on his face was so warm and so kind, you could just tell he was full of clever jokes. After our shaky ride down back the mountain and through the mobs we decided to cut our plan short of where else we wanted to go because it was getting dark.
The next day we rose bright at early to catch our 5:45 am bus to near the Tibet/Nepal border which should have taken only 3.5 hours but took nearly 5. The riots were still going and it took a while for us to pass through them. Thankfully ambulances and tourists vehicles are allowed to pass through the blockades, it just took some negotiating and driving over fire.... When we made it to "The Last Resort" we suited up in wet suits and fleeces to go Canyoning. OK so its a bit crazy to go abseiling through waterfalls when its freezing outside, but you are only young once right? Luckily we were the only ones going that day so we got two personal instructors. Canyoning is climbing up to the top and then scaling down waterfalls with the help of ropes to go Right through the water line. We scaled down 7 different waterfalls and it was amazing. Soooooooooo much fun! The instructor was even impressed with my skills. I got the hang of it pretty fast and he asked if I had done anything like that before because I was doing so well. Maybe I have a future as a professional canyoner...don't worry mom, I am just kidding :) After our waterfall adventure we filled our bellies with a huge lunch, hung out with our wet and soggy shoes, and then took the bus back to Kathmandu.
Today we are going to see some more of the sites before jetting off to Pokhara.