Katmandu - July 13-16

On leaving the airport there is a hotel desk where one can make reservations with any of the numerous foreign guesthouses in the city, and we made reservations with a fellow who happened to be there offering $5 a night rooms and a free lift to the hotel. It was a decent deal especially since we later found out that the hotel we had originally wanted to stay at was charging at least $15 a night. Hotel Poon-Hill, apart from having faucets that don't really shut off and hot water that takes about 30 minutes to get warm (never hot), it pretty nice. It is set in off the street a little and has very friendly staff. So far in Kathmandu we have spent most of our time planning our trekking and relaxing a bit. We went out the first night to a hookah bar with live music which was pretty busy. We shared a table with one guy who was already there and it turned out that he was a real live Kazakhstani (yes, it really IS a country, who knew?!). He had, in fact, seen parts of Borat and thought it was pretty funny even if all the Kazakhstani politicians did not. We talked to him for over an hour until he was tired and left to get some sleep. Much to Rob's amusement he would every once in a while start a sentence with 'in my country" although he did not, in fact, speak any polish. If, at this point, you have no idea what I'm talking about you have likely not heard of 'Da Ali G Show' or seen the movie 'Borat'. If you are out of college this if forgivable and you would likely not find them amusing anyway. A little while after he left some Italian women joined us at the table. They were in Nepal doing research for a masters (or something equivalent to that) in the area of forestry and sustainable logging techniques. We talked to them for quite a while also before we decided to head out.
When we left the bar the monsoon was in full force with torrential rains and although it wasn't terribly warm it was quite amusing to wade through the middle of the street and get a feel for the power of the deluge. The next day we went to the monkey temple which (aside from being a very cool temple on top of a large hill) is filled with monkeys! The monkeys, which I really enjoy taking pictures of, are even more fun this time of year since there are still a lot of babies which are cute and make for even better pictures. The next night we went out to dinner at a steak house which was surprisingly delicious aside from being slightly undercooked. It was also a very large fillet for only about $7 per person. Most of the rest of our time was spent working on the trekking plan and picking up some extra gear we would need and had forgotten or not thought to bring.