Hello From Nepal

It was a long trip but now I am here, and so far it has been great. (I posted a bunch of pictures on my picasa page if you are interested) I got here on Friday and I spent the afternoon walking around Patan, the area in which I am staying. It is right outside of Kathmandu and the home to a lot of foreign residents. Streets here are not named so it is a little difficult to learn the area, and you don't have the comfort of being able to ask directions back because I have no way of explaining where it is I want to go.

Yesterday we explored Thamel, the tourist trap of Kathmandu. The narrow streets are lined with shops selling lot of knock off outdoor gear. The North Face seems to be the label of choice. We also went to the monkey temple which is up on a hill above the city. It was really crowded since Saturday is the Buddhist holy day, and the only day off from work. As the nick name suggests, there were many monkeys running around-many of them looking rather sickly. Outside the walls of the temple are lots of trash with which the monkeys play. The temple was really cool though. Lots of ornate wood carvings and prayer flags everywhere. At one point it started to rain so we went inside a Tibetan Monastery and watched a ritual the monks were doing-chanting, playing music, and hand motions specific to the god they were worshipping. Even the monks wear Crocs.

Photos: Thamel--Monkey Temple--Kathmandu Skyline

Last night Chandra taught me how to cook dahl-rice, lentils and vegetables, the standard Nepali meal. And I learned to eat the Nepali way - with my hands. Traditionally they do not have ovens here, all food is cooked on the stove top. Only recently have bakeries become popular. Most people do not have an oven in their home.

Today I went to my first Nepali business meeting. Chandra and I met with the Chairman of the Himalayan Rescue Association. I was trying to see if I could get involved with them while here, ideally go up to the clinic at Everest Base Camp. We sat around and drank tea and he gave us a tour of the building which wreaked of polyurethane because they are putting in a restaurant on the top floor. The people who work in the office and not climbers. I understood only about half of what was going on, turns out Chandra didn't really follow it either. But we both got the sense that they were welcoming me to work in their office, hard to tell what they were saying about working in the field. He gave me information on a course that is happening but I am not quite sure what his goals in that were. I think that they said come back next week, we look forward to this partnership. I think that I am going to try to talk with the American doctor who runs the clinic tomorrow and see if that is more helpful - at least I should be able to understand what is going on.