Kathmandu!

First things first: Jake. it was tough to see you off at the airport. Man, I am so glad you came to spend some time with us here in Nepal. We miss you, and thank you for coming. Next time... your ladies will be with us too!
Secondly: I am sorry that the blog posts have been few and far between. As explained in the previous post, the power situation here is odd, to say the least. There is some generator power for the 16 hours a day that the country is shut off from its power grid, but for the most part that generator power is used for "essentials"- (like rock bands, as you will hear in a minute)- but not for the internet. Plus we have been hanging out in the mountains and with our friend Jake, neither of which is conducive to internet time. Anyway...I think the blog posts will still be a bit sporadic, but I will do the best I can.
So, Kathmandu. Ahhhh, Kathamandu.
Have you ever been to a place that seems as if it is the manifestation on your personality- your quirks, your way of doing things, your "schtick"...? Well, for me that place is Kathmandu. Needless to say, I love it here. But it is not a love affair, or even an infatuation, like one might have with Paris or another exotic and beautiful place. I think I would describe as more of an affinity. I feel like if I somehow morphed into a city, I would turn into Kathmandu. Which is OK, because I am pretty sure Matt would morph into a mountain somewhere in the Himalayas- so we'd always be close to one another. (I know, I am a hopeless romantic).
Let me explain this affinity a bit. I have been trying to find the words...(always trying to find the words)...I guess I could start with St. Patrick's Day. You wouldn't think there would be much of anything going on in Nepal- a decidedly un-Irish Catholic country. But in Kathmandu? It is a different story. We didn't have just one place to go to- we had choices. We started out the evening at a bar/restaurant that featured Nepali waiters serving green beer in green hats and buttons that said, (you guessed it), :"Kiss Me I'm Irish"! The three of us sat there wondering how St. Patrick's Day was explained at a staff meeting:
'OK, guys. There's this holiday- it is big in the states, and maybe other places too. Americans like to get really drunk on this day, and they do things like pinch anyone who isn't wearing green, and in some cities they even dye their rivers green. So, here's what we gotta do...'
After dinner, we headed to another Irish bar in town. This one was complete with U2 posters and the Irish flag painted on the ENTIRE ceiling. We hunkered down there for the rest of the night. DOnt get me wrong- there was at least one more place we could have gone, but why leave when you have a live Nepali band singing hits from bands like Dire Straits and Pink Floyd all night? Seriously. Oh yeah- the power outage? No problem. We listened to the generator-fueled rock by candlelight. I mean, there are priorities, right? I love it!!! Perhaps my favorite song of the night was Neil Young's "Keep on Rockin' in the Free World". I loved listening to it as I pondered the fact that I am visiting a country with a Maoist government.
OK, so the party didn't last all night. Kathmandu is a bit of an early to bed place, and most establishments close at 10 or 11. The place we were at decided to play with fire by staying open a bit later on St. Patty's Day- but it didn't work. At promptly 11:10pm, mid-song, the generator was switched off as the authorities entered the bar and politely asked everyone to drink up and go home. I have never seen a more pleasant shut-down of a party. Fantastic. We walked the short few blocks to our hotel by candlelight and I was smiling the entire time. I'd say it was one of the better St. Patrick's Day celebrations I've had.
Beyond the food and drink, there is the history of the city. We went on walks that took us through the old town square filled with Buddhist and Hindu temples. Many of the temples featured incredibly detailed wood carvings of all sorts of things-animals, gods and goddesses, and, um....pornographic images. A lot of that, actually. It was pretty hilarious to look at these carvings as an interested tourist while Nepalis watched on shyly to catch a glimpse of our reaction to it all. Also, there were some things that were downright bizaare-( I mean more bizaare than erotic art on temples)- like the shrine to the Toothache God. It is basically a wooden block full of coins that people had nailed to it. In the surrounding neighborhood, there are tons of dental clinics. Of course!
Kathmandu is an amazing mixture of "party town" and "ancient historical relics" town. The modern and the old co-exist beautifully. At one point on a walk, we saw a small Buddhist statue that dated back to the 5th century, and right next to it were the outer walls of a used computer store. A few miles outside of town there is the largest Buddhist stupa in the country, and it is surrounded by several monasteries. A stupa is basically a huge circular structure/tower that is a dedication to Budhhism. If you want, you can sit at one of many nearby pubs and watch the Buddhist monks turn prayer wheels as they walk clockwise around the stupa.
As you may have gathered, Kathmandu is very quirky. And I can't complete my commentary without a bit about the people here. The best way I can say it is that the Nepalis here seem to all be "in on the joke". I am not sure what the joke is- maybe it is about us, the tourists, but whatever it is, they all are a part of it. Everyone seems to have an expression on their face as if they have a funny secret to share. I have yet to make eye contact with anyone without being granted a huge, beautiful smile. People laugh and joke with each other all of the time, and there is a light-hearted feel in the air.
Take today, for example: Matt and I were walking through town when a massive thunderstorm came through. For the past few days, there has been a little rain here and there, but today it really unleashed. This made everyone very happy, and we heard several times, "This is good for us". Apparently Nepal has not had rain since October, causing a huge build-up of smog in the city. The smog is a bit overwhelming, and many people wear masks over their faces to combat it. So, with the rain, we saw a renewed happiness, a whole new level of joy in the city. It seemed as if every person that I exchanged greetings with today looked as if they had just fallen in love. Maybe I was just seeing myself in them- because I have most certainly fallen in love.
OK- I will stop babbling now. I told you I'm in love! :)
Tomorrow we head out so Matt can get his feet back into the mountains where he belongs. We decided to part ways for one week so that I can go to a yoga ashram and he can hike high into the mountains much faster than he could with me weighing him down! I made him promise to get a guide..(d0don't worry!). We will split ways on Monday and meet up a few days before our 4 year wedding anniversary and Matt's birthday! If you don't hear from me in the next week or so, I will be stuck in some pretzel position on a yoga mat somewhere and Matt will be employing his mountain-goat ways!
Stay tuned!