Sweet Home Nepal

Reasons why Terminal 3 in Singapore's airport is truly amazing.

Really excited about landing in Singapore for 8 hours.

Cool fountain in Terminal 3

The Himalayan Mountains from the air.

That's Mount Everest folks.

Miniature stupas recognizing hundreds of Hindu gods.

View from Swayambhunath (Monkey Temple)

Prayer flags sending mantras into the wind to be spread around the world.

Day 2 in Nepal: Getting ready to head to my language lesson

One of the largest stupas in Nepal (representing the fusion of Hindu and Buddhist religous beliefs).

Well, I just got back from some afternoon sightseeing with my language teacher, Pramila. She took me out to ancient Monkey Temple of Swayambhunath which is an incredible fusion of Buddhist and Hindu stupas and prayer wheels atop a hill with sweeping views of the city. The name is fitting because there are packs of monkeys everywhere! While we were enjoying the World Peace Pond, one of the monkeys swung down to take a drink of the water while hanging from one of the decorative pillars and fell into the water. He started to panick because the sides of the pond were completely smooth stone and there was no way to climb out. He started screaming in sheer panick as he started to sink and then his mother swung down and rescued him from the water. It was crazy to watch his little brother wrap his little monkey arms around his half-drowned brother's neck and wipe the water away from his fur.

I'm getting ready to grab some tea with my new friend, Mani who is going to be my guide for Everest Base Camp trek and Lang Tang trek. He came highly recommended from Brenda, and I immediately adored him. He now owns his own adventure company called The Great Adventure Trekking and Expeditions. So I feel very lucky to have the owner be my guide coming up this April. He's also given me the lowdown on how to get into Tibet for reasonable cost. I'll be able to do a package deal for 7 nights for around $450. I told him it was a done deal. I already wish it was April. :)

Kathmandu has really blown me away. Nothing can prepare you for the heartbreaking poverty of this city. Nobody really told me what to expect and I really didn't read anywhere how devastating the conditions are for the people who live here. Maybe that's because the foreigners spend about a day in the touristy section of the city and then immediately head out to the mountains. I almost was tempted to run for the mountains myself when I got here yesterday, and had a very strange bout of culture shock. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Rickshaws, microvans, bicycles, and scooters all speeding right at each other at breakneck speeds nearly colliding with orange vendors and cows, children playing in piles of garbage, people bathing in the streets, loins of sheep being hacked into bloody quarters, a mother digging through the demolished remains of a brick building scavenging for extra bricks, boys playing ping pong on a stone slab with a divider made from crumbling bricks. All of a sudden I felt very alone and confused about why I was really here. I checked into my hotel, unpacked, and just sat there waiting for the coordinator to arrive for about two hours. I just wanted to get out into the city, eat something, and get immersed, but I had to stay at the hotel until he arrived. During that time, it felt so strange to have noone to talk to and to have no idea what to expect would come next. As soon as I met Matrika, the coordinator and another American volunteer for dinner, I felt immediately at ease and knew that I had made the right decision to come here.

It seems as if the entire city is near collapse and filled with the loudest, most unsettling caucophany of noise and pollution I've ever witnessed. I thought I had seen it all in the Philippines and Peru. Wow, I was so wrong. Cheryl, one of the American volunteers, and I meandered our way around Thamel and Asan Tole last night looking for her to buy one of the popular Tibetan singing bowls. Despite being nearly mowed over by taxis and rickshaws numerous times, I was fascinated by the endless market streets of shimmering metal wares and bolts of brilliant fabrics and saris, grass baskets brimming with saffron and curry powders, enormous sheets of cauliflower, peppers, and mushrooms. It was chaos, but it was so enjoyable at the same time.

I was so dead tired that when I returned to the hotel last night I just dropped like a fly into my sleeping bag, with my headlamp still on and almost fully clothed.