Namaste

kim here
We've been in nepal 5 days now and have seen and heard and smelt so many brand new sensations! We arrived at 2am into darkness, so when we woke up our first morning we were finally able to see nepal. Most of our pictures are buildings, temples and sights around kathmandu, i am not sure if they will do the justice our eyes were able to see. The highlights so far are the amazing stupas and durbar square, which is an ancient square full of buddist and hindu temples, pagoda style, and where all the hippies used to hang out during the 70's. There is a house in the middle where a 10 yr old girl lives , her title is kumari, which is basically a princess, she will be a kumari until her first menses. Then they start the process again searching for 4/5 yr olds who meet certain physical standards, and they put them in a temple overnight with 108 freshly cut animal heads, whoever can last the night without being frightened is the kumari. one other interesing fact is that she can only leave her house 4 times a year , and her feet must never touch the earth, so she is carried . we don't have any pictures of her b/c it is strictly enforced no photos, but you can see her sometimes out the window. if you are interested i am sure they have one or two images on the internet that were approved. We are leaving soon to a city called Pokhara, which is on a lake with a view of the himylayas, that is where we will start our first trek, around the annapurna mt range! wish us luck!

bob here
this place is insane. just trying to walk down the street is a chaotic mess. it takes a high level of concentration to avoid getting run over by rickshaws and suzuki taxis and motorcycles. they anounce they are behind you with a super loud horn, honk, bell, whistle, shout, or weird duck noise . on top of all this people are constantly trying to sell us crap, following us for blocks at a time. so you dodge a motorcyle, tell the guy no hash, turn around to look for kim, and all of a sudden theres a guy dressed in a robe and dreadlocks trying to plant a red dot on your forehead ( fake holy men from india )! but its a lot of fun, and theres never a dull moment and so much to do.

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