Hotel Shanker Kathmandu

... 365 steps up to it. We got there and spent most of the time watching the monkeys!

The rest of the time we spent just walking about the shops, eating or relaxing. There isn't much to do in Thamel and its full of tourists. And you can't turn a corner without "small smoke sir, hash, cocaine.....". The place is full of drugs. Anyway enough *****ing, we still had a great time here. Heading to the airport for 24hour journey to Beijing, should be fun.

Thats all for now!

... me schools, orphanages, and many friend's houses where we stop for endless tea and food picked right from the trees beside us, as we sit on shaded porches. To get to these places, we always walk through cornfields, passing goats tied to wooden posts and children playing with younger siblings. They stop to watch us as we pass, while their parents work away in the fields in the heat.

Today we tried to type up the project budget and ...

... happiness, I love Nepal, though soon I will take off out of the city to the peaceful nature of the rest of this beautiful country. By then I will need the peace.

Until then, I listen to the sounds of happy children playing, the calming music of an unseen flute player somewhere out there, outside my window, birds chirping at dawn, the laughter of women in intimate conversations, a man talking to his wife with love and admiration in his eyes, their child watching and ...

... usually a pancake or crepe-like substance, served with a bit of fruit - this morning it was a banana- or I spread a bit of Nutella over it. Funnily enough they have a wide selection of western foods and products here - anything from Nature Valley bars to Frosted Flakes. At dinner, we always have rice and typically curried potatoes or some type of vegetable. Last night we had a feast - farewell dinner for one of the volunteers in the ...

... all the sites. Many of the buildings dated back to the 12th century and are still used today as places of worship for Hindus and Buddhists alike. We visited a building built in 1757 which is the home of today's Living Goddess, Kumari. This is a young girl who after passing several tests as a baby was named the living Goddess of Nepal. She is forbidden to touch the ground outside her home so when she leaves she has to be carried. Once she reaches ...

... how this dampens down ones enthusiasm for retail therapy!! every place you walk past has music blaring out, much of it 60's music from the days when it was purely a a popular stop on the hippy trail and the remnants of this can be seen everywhere with funky shops and names like Freak street !!............ mind you there are still plenty of freaks around!! we had a great meal in the evening in a lovely garden restaurant where we sat and watched Nepali dancing with a ...

... the consumer and embarking on a course of unsustainability. The Hotel Milan were freely offering people boiled and filtered stream water, about as safe as you can get, but I heard a group of English people (whom I'm sure Australians would have referred to as 'whining poms') eschewing this water in favour of Coca Cola and then complaining that bottled 'mineral' water was not on sale.

The afternoon was spent pleasantly on the lawn overlooking a valley of cultivated terraces and ...