Kathmandu Day 2

---

Today was our first full day and last in Kathmandu. It is a hard city to describe; it is truly the 4th world. However, there is something utterly magical and fantastic about this place, and the people more than make up for it's filthiness. We are greeted at every turn with "Namaste," and a half bow.
First we met with a travel agent named Ram, who comes from a long line of Ghurka soldiers. He helped arrange for our very own Sherpa guide when we trek in the Himalayas, our rafting, rappelling, and Elephant safari.
We later wandered around the city, taking the recommended tourist walking tour to the Durbar Square. We walked past ancient temples, shrines and stupas wedged in between ramshackle buildings. Several parts of this city look as though there were bombed, and I found Baghdad to be cleaner in many respects. It was nice to finally wander about without a tour guide explaining every last detail until your head wants to explode.
We ended up in some sketchy areas, and were on high alert after being warned about pick pocketers and other evil doers. Several times we conducted some counter-surveillance, convincing ourselves that we were being tailed by some little brown guys. Everyone here is incredibly helpful and friendly, but you just can’t help but be suspicious and question their intent. We were offered Hash on several occasions, apparently the drug of choice in these parts.
Dennis and his tattoos are a huge hit here. It felt like we couldn’t walk for five minutes without someone saying “nice tattoos man.” Kathmandu has a history since the 60’s of catering to the anti-establishment, counter-culture crowd. There are scores of pierced Europeans with dreadlocks who look as though they have gone native here; maybe it’s the cheap Hash that draws them.
We then took a rickshaw to Swayambhunath, the “Monkey Temple,” which is a hilltop Buddhist and Hindu shrine overlooking the city . It is covered in Rhesus monkeys, hence it’s nickname. It was incredible to watch our simian brothers scramble around statues of Buddha, and beg for food from the tourists .
Tomorrow we are off to Pokhara, in the foothills of the Himalayas.

---

Photos

The thin blue line

Happy recipients of US quarters