Monday: monkeys and temples

So on monday we dragged our asses out of bed at 5 a.m. to hike half an hour, and then climb over 400 stairs (no, seriously) up to a buddist temple (Swayambu) for the sunrise. It's known as the monkey temple because, well, lots of monkeys live up there. They eat the offerings that people leave at the shrines. No one seems to mind.

Monkeys!

This is a giant prayer-wheel, mid spin. There
are hundreds up there. There are thousands of written
prayers inside the wheel, so spinning it is like saying a
prayer thousands of times. Convenient, no?


Sunrise over Kathmandu

This view does not capture either the steepness, or

the sheer number of stairs. The top of the picture does

not include the horizon, just to give you a better idea of

the angle.

Swayambu. Those are the eyes of Buddha, watching

over the valley. One represents wisdom, and one

represents compassion.

Lots of little shrines. People leave seeds, coloured paste,

and flowers. Then the monkeys eat it all.

Then later that night we went to a pub in Thamel: Tom and Jerry's. We played pool most of the night. And guys, you have never played pool like the pool in this pub. The tables are all ripped up, and a series of plastic pipes run from all the holes. But the pipes are pretty rickety, so sometimes balls fall through cracks, or get stuck. Then you have to walk around the table, shaking all the pipes, or dropping other balls down to knock them through. Kathmandu billiards is quite the game of patience. I got a few good shots, and was dubbed a "#1 warrior"! Also I've never been in a bar before where you can argue about the price of drinks after you've finished them. Or where the Nepali instinct towards super-hosting makes the bartender insist you have "just one more, please, little one, please". Hee-larious.

Beginning of orientation week

Ok, so I haven't posted lately because I've been so busy doing so much stuff! And loading photos takes like 10 minutes each on this connection, and also the power and/or internet is sorta spotty sometimes so it's gonna be awhile before I can catch up. Let's start with Sunday of last week, shall we? Rajiv (volunteer coordinator extraordinaire) and DC (cook/house manager/comedian) took us on a tour of the market area, Durbar square (temples area) and then to buy saris! Let's take a look:

Karen and I on a rickshaw in the market. Our driver

looks rather put out, doesn't he?

This is in the market area, surrounded by dental clinics.

Essentially it's a really old (like hundreds of years) piece

of wood. People nail coins to it as an offering to the toothache

god. And then they go to the dentist.

Spices! So cheap and plentiful, I may have to bring back

a suitcase full. I may become an independent saffron trader.

Me, Karen and Allan at this little temple in the market where

you're supposed to feed the pidgeons. You can kind of

see how freaked out I am by them here. There are way

more than you can see. Thousands, actually.

This is the window in durbar square where we got to

see a living goddess (but weren't allowed to take a picture

of her). Middle top. She's a 9 year old girl. The goddesses

are the incarnation of Kali, and...actually, just check here.

Street kid with street puppy in Durbar square. The street

kids here are so young, and frequently huff gas to get stoned.

It's really sad.

The perfect microcosm of Nepal: Temples, pidgeons and

cows. The guys on the far left are holy men. Except they're

not. They're dudes who dress as holy men and then ask

tourists for money to take a photo. Real holy men won't let

you take their photo.

There is a monkey god under this red shawl. But his eyes

must be covered, because he is the god of bachelors and thus

is not allowed to see the:

Erotic temple art!!!

It's a little dim in these pics, but trust me, they're naughty.

Lastly we went to buy saris. This is not the one I got.

Also, the veil is just for brides. It's pretty vegas.

The man who sold us our saris (and tailored them specifically to us) then gave us tea and cookies. Then he left his shop and took us to several different shops/stands to buy us matching bangles, tikas (those forehead jewels) and necklaces. He insisted on them matching perfectly and negotiated the best prices for us. Then back to the shop for more tea and cookies. All of this was at his insistence, by the way. It was like having a personal stylist who could only speak enough english to say "please, please" as he led you by the arm from shop to shop. Pretty hilarious, really.

More to come!

Checking things out...

So the gang's all here. If you can call three of us a gang. It's me (who you know, presumably), Karen and Allan. Karen's 34, and kind of on a quest to find herself after her divorce. Super nice, but trying to convince me to go trekking, which I'm unsure about. Allan's somewhere between 50-60, and a douche. Sorry Mom, I don't know what else to say. He's not un-nice, but he's just been everywhere, knows everything about everything, won't hear anything against his opinions without getting really upset, and talks constantly. And all his stories are about him winning fights, fending off lustful ladies who want his bod, or single-handedly rescuing African villages. He's even mentioned his IQ on 2 seperate occasions. No, seriously. Don't know how much longer I can stand him.

Managed to do some walking around to check out the area. Here are some photos:

Notice anything off? This made me go "WTF?" but the swastika's

apparently a hindu symbol for interconnectedness or something.

There's also a symbol identical to the Star of David meaning

knowledge. Not two symbols you usually see together, but that's

Nepal for you.

A view from our rooftop of some of the city. Even though

it's the capital and most modern city in Nepal, not one

single Western-style office building exists here.

A view from a rooftop café in Thamel. Thamel's the

tourist area of Kathmandu. We went out to a pub there

last night and got a taste of true Kathmandu culture:

drunken Brits bellowing along to "Wonderwall".

Some kids near our house. They play in the streets and

yards a lot. They look kind of somber, but it was all crazy

giggling, followed by serious pose, followed by giggly

excited shrieking at being shown their photos.

Kathmandu (for reals this time)

I have arrived. Even though it is like 8000 o'clock my time I am suddenly very very awake. It might be an obvious thing to state, but it is really different here. It's a full on 3rd world country. And it's so real. It's gonna take me some time to soak this in. The house is freaking gorgeous and appears made entirely of stone and marble, making it cold even though it's 30 degrees out. In their "winter". Didn't see the guy at the airport with my name at first and kind of freaked out, but he came and found me and gave me a 'welcome to nepal' necklace make of marigolds. Then a crazy taxi ride through the city. The roads are full of cars, motorbikes, bicycles, people, stray dogs, sacred cows, rickshaws and carts full of colourful stuff. There is nothing resembling lights or stop signs or straight roads, so it's kind of a free for all. They drive on the left here, but if you're blocked, give the right side a try! Luckily no one can get up to a speed that would do any real damage in all the confusion. Once when we were stopped a kid ran up to the window saying "ok, give me packet, I very hungry" about my welcome cookies, but I had been warned not to do this. Still felt bad though. Things not expected: The pollution, which makes your throat hurt, and which looked like a big brown cloud over the city when we flew in. Also, the lack of any embarassment about picking your nose. And I mean getting in there!

My bed, hard as a rock, but still somehow comfy

The sorta-dirty tantric art in my room

The view out of one of my windows,
directly into someone else's house

The view out of my other window, at the street

Doha

Man, moving ahead in time zones is wierd. It's like going to the very near future. I really feel like I've been travelling for 2 days, but really it's been not even 24 hours yet. Anyways, I want to always travel on Qatar airways. Swank! My huge plane had like a dozen people on it, so I had 2 seats to myself. The food was super-schmancy, the bathrooms awesome, and you can choose from a ton of movies, tv shows and music in Hindi, Arabic, English or French, to watch on your own little tv. And why yes, I would like a hot towel, thank you! The airport's kinda blah though. Maybe that's just cause it's 2 am here so not much is open, but the bathrooms are gross. Use some of that oil money to buy new toilet seats, Qatar, 'cause if the're duct taped together, it's not so good.

More essentials: Snapple and Diet Coke, Qatari-style

K-k-k-k-k-k-Kathmandu

So I'm here, alive and well, and completely overwhelmed. I've been writing down things I wanted to say throughout my crazy journey to get here, and I'm gonna post them in order.

Heathrow
People are not kidding about the delays, lineups and prices here. Holy crap. I paid $16 for scrambled eggs and toast. I also waited an hour in line for the wrong check in counter: "This is emirates! You want Qatar!" Geez, sorry lady. Then at security my entire carry-on was unpacked and searched, including my unmentionablundies. And dudes, it was paaaacked, so it took me a good 1/2 hour to repack it. But then through security. No wait, shoes off for x-raying. But then done. No wait, a 4th examination of my passport! Finally got through though. Anyways, things seen: several chocolate bars the size of textbooks or larger. What's the deal with that? Several redonk high end shops:

Gucci

Hermès

(I got so embarassed after taking those pictures at my geek-itude that I had to go wait at the other end of the terminal. Also couldn't take any of Armani, Cartier, Burburry, etc, without appearing to be taking photos of strangers.)

A 'Take That' 'back4good' super ultimate edition, which was hilarious. Also, the store "Glorious Britain" - like shopping in the home of a delightful British stereotype! There: stuffed Paddington Bears (aw!), toy Bobby hats (hee!) and several postcards, including one in the shape of Princess Diana's head (um...in poor taste?).

...uncomfortable...


Hee-larious

Must remember to hit it again with April. Managed to find the essentials though:

Made in GB!

It's travel...it's travel time!

Seriously, April has ruined my life with this.

Anyways, We're getting down to the final days...exciting and scary! Scareciting? And I think I'm finally covered on the ridiculous amount of preparation:

All the immunization records, personal identification, visas, e-tickets, pills for the e-coli I'm bound to contract, blah, blah, paperwork-cakes.

However, I'm so over 2007 and I'm very happy to skip this year's Ottawa winter, especially since the view from my apartment windows looks like this:

At least in that window you get 2 inches or so of sky. Check this one:

Wherein you can see exactly nothing because the sidewalk-plows have thoughtfully deposited a massive pile of snow onto my front yard, which grows larger every time it snows. Which is every day. 'Mound' (as April has affectionately dubbed him) is already blocking half of the 1st floor's windows and will no doubt grow taller than the house itself whilst I am away. So good luck with that house-mates, cause I'm off!