Recap: First Week in Nepal

I've been in Nepal a week now and I guess you could say I've started to get my "mountain legs". Travel to Foreign Lands is always discombobulating, and in Nepal there are such things as the traffic (Kathmandu begs for urban infrastructure, streetlights and sidewalks would be amazing), the food, and the sheer overwhelming strangeness of the day to day - nothing in my head prepares me for the sights and sounds of Asia.

That said however, since about Thursday or so I've stopped visibly flinching when Jacob suggests leaving the confines of the apartment. But let me take this in order:

On Sunday the 14th I arrived in Nepal after about 20 plane hours, and 12.75 hours time difference. I slept most of Sunday and a good chunk of Monday. Jacob took me for a short walk through his hood Monday, and it completely freaked me out- car horns and motorcycles and everyone moving according to their own internal traffic rules.

After that Jacob whisked me off to a resort outside of Kathmandu. On our way there we stopped in Bhaktapur which is outside Kathmandu, the former capital of one of the old kingdoms. It was very scenic and interesting- they got some money to fix up the center of the town and the traffic was much less.

Pottery Square in Bhaktapur

A view of Bhaktapur from a rooftop restaurant.

Then we went to our resort which had damp rooms (Dulikhel Lodge Resort Official Motto: "Cold, but Damp"), ginormous spiders, mostly cold showers and indifferent food (Nepali menus offer everything from Indian and Chinese food to Beef Stroganoff- very little of it done particularly impressively.). That was the hard part. The great parts were impressive views (I have seen the Himalayas and they are really big mountains, just like the books say.) , hawks, pretty birds, a short hike that totally wiped me out, time with Jacob and a beautiful setting. Also lots of pooris for breakfast. (Mmm fried foods).The Himalayas! (It was cloudy in Dhulikel)

We came back to town on Thursday, and ate spicy chinese for dinner. Then yesterday Jacob took me to Boudhanath- which is a temple to Buddha in the Tibetan neighborhood of town. It was beautiful and we spent a lot of time talking to people who worked at a shop painting Thankas- a type of Buhhdist religious paintings- it was fascinating- Jacob was into the religious symbolism, and I was obsessed with getting a sense of how the paintings were put together.

And today we're going to the touristy center of KTM:Thamel for fun and games, so this is it for my post of the week. There is so much more detail I can't possibly convey.