Kathmandu

I landed in Kathmandu yesterday morning and promptly got lost as soon as I left my hotel because I apparently can't read maps on little sleep (maybe 6 hours over 48, total?) and went the exact opposite direction. I have some pretty good maps, but unfortunately I've only seen 2 street signs in English and cannot read Nepali. But it's OK, I got to see another non-touristy part of the city and people were really helpful in helping me find my way back. Once I get to a tourist area, I can use the hotels and stuff as landmarks because they are in my guidebook. And I haven't gotten lost since.

Once I got back to my supposed starting point, I used Lonely Planet's walking tour from Thamel (the tourist neighborhood) down to Durbar Square, which was the ancient capital and a UNESCO world heritage site.The walking tour can basically summarized as "look, here's a temple!" and look, another temple! I was almost templed-out by the time I got to Durbar Square. But I got a pretty good guide who explained a lot of stuff about the temples to me, which is helpful, since I know very little about Buddhism or Hinduism and some temples are both Buddhist and Nepalese temples, and there are figures in both religions that are important in both. What looks like the Star of David is also some sort of Buddhist symbol too, although I haven't learned its meaning yet.

I had a very strange bargaining experience yesterday. I was trying to sell back a book at a used bookstore, and the guy asked me to make an offer first, even after I explained that I had no idea what the prices were. I looked around the store a bit and offered 300 ruppees. He then offered 150 and refused to budge. I didn't understand why he didn't just offer 150 in the first place, if he wasn't going to bargain at all. I got kind of upset, and he just kept saying Namaste (hello/goodbye) & bowing and trying to get me out of there. So I went somewhere else, where they offered me 150 too, which was fine, I didn't care about the price, but at least we didn't do some song and dance about it. Maybe he was just hoping I would offer less than 150.

Today I got the 2nd permit that I needed for my hike (I need a general Nepal registration card & an Annapurna area permit), and then walked over to the Monkey Temple. I bought 2 empanada-type things along the way, and ate one. It was pretty good, actually. But then a monkey stole the 2nd one, just as I was thinking, I should put this in my bag. Of course, that's the first thing I should have done when I saw the monkey, instead of take pictures of it. A buddhist monk laughed as I cursed at the monkey eating the rest of my lunch.

This temple was more buddhist than Hindu, but had some Hindu elements too. It was visually pretty impressive.

Headed off to start the Annapurna circuit tomorrow. At the earliest, the next post will be within 12 days, but I am planning on doing the whole 17 day trek, so it might not be for 17.