I made it!

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Hi guys, I made it to Kathmandu safe and sound. Thanks for the comments! I haven't figured out how to reply to them individualy yet.

Day 4 in London:
Toured the temples from the knights of Templar, saw the place where Queen Elizabeth The First saw the first performance of Twelve Night, went to Westminster Abbey and another art gallery that I happened to walk into trying to avoid the rain.

Plllllaaaannnnnneeeee riiiiiiiiiiiidddddde


Day 1 in Nepal:
Landed in Nepal at the Kathmandu International Airport, which made the Dryden airport look high-tech and glamorous. Met the program coordinator there but on the way on to the volunteer house we had to take numerous detours b/c the local people decided to burn tires in the street. Apparently, there was a strike or maybe a small car accident and people just decided to start burning things. I’m told this is how things are done in Nepal…sometimes they just start burning things, go with it. Not to give you the wrong impression b/c the people here are so extraordinarily nice. Even in the terrible traffic in the small narrow streets all the taxi drivers, motorcyclists and rickshaw drivers were trying to help everyone and each other out.

Day 2:
Started off with a tour of Thamel (the tourist district), the market and Durbar Square (a temple place.) Kathmandu is so confusing; none of the streets are in any logical pattern or have names. Rather, intersections and areas have names and none of which I can remember or pronounce properly. Oh yes, and while getting the tour Lindsay (the coordinator) and I would have to occasionally sprint to avoid water balloons b/c people were getting ready for the holiday “Holi”. The day ended off with a spontaneous trip to the casino and a rickshaw race to get there. (The rickshaw drivers here are pretty crazy and more then once I’ve closed my eyes b/c I figured we were headed for a crash.) Our rickshaw driver was in the lead till the chain on his bike fell off. He still managed to pass the last two guys for us to place in second, which was pretty darn impressive. The “Casino Royal” is a turquoise and pink casino with an Egyptian theme……”very James Bond.”. They also have free buffet and drinks. I tried playing Roulette but seeing that I don’t know how to play it in English, playing it in Nepali wasn’t working out so well. So I switched to Blackjack and broke even.

Day 3: Holi “ the festival of colour”
This is possibly the coolest festival I have ever heard of. It’s basically a citywide water balloon fight, lots of them with colour added. It’s also custom to smear people with bright colours of powder while yelling “Happy holi!” We (the four other volunteers and I) loaded up our bags of water balloons and made our way to Thamel. But I think looking so prepared made us even more of a target to be pelted with balloons from the rooftops. It was so much fun. I did get caught and painted, my skin is still a little coloured from it. You know a Kool-Aid moustache?…this is like a Kool-Aid face. Everyone here has impeccable aim, even the little kids…. it was quite outstanding actually. If I didn’t have to run I would have stopped and applauded.

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Photos

Tour of Durbar Square
In the middle is the tour guide we hired that morning, on the right is D.C. the house cook/caretaker. I'm the only new volunteer for March so all the tours are just for me.

yikes
thats me post holi

preparing ammo
We had to crouch b/c the neighbours kept smoking us with water balloons