Nepal, continued

Got back to Kathmandu, not only in time for the seder, but to have pizza on the way back to the hotel. And to get Matan some new running shoes. Not easy to find size 45. However, since he's on the track team this year (!), I think he should have good shoes.

sorry about the fuzzy pictures - you get the idea, we dressed up for the seder.





There were probably 700-800 people at the seder. The enthusiasm was high, while young trekkers were certainly the majority, there were lots of tourists, too, and the food was surprising (vegetables and fish and matzoh). We kept watching the kitchen to see if they were going to bring kneidelach... at our table - Gil, who was born in Israel but moved with her family to the US when she was 9. she did medical school in Beer Sheva and is now volunteering in Nepal for a month. Also a couple from Eilat who have been all over the world. Moved to Eilat in 1964 -- I can hardly imagine how many people would have been there then. And two guys from Nepal who knew the couple's son -- from when he had come to Nepal many years ago.



Next morning we got on the bus to Pokhara. This ride usually takes about 7 hours. Unfortunately there were some gas containers that needed to be reloaded on a truck (?) and the road was backed-up for hours with only one lane going through at a time. we sort of dozed in the sun on the bus. got to the breakfast stop at noon after being on the bus since 7am. the last time we did that bus ride, that stop came by 9am. Then the afternoon got darker and cloudier and it rained most of the rest of the way with a spectacular hail storm as we entered Pokhara at about 5pm.

We didn't seem to have much of a view from our hotel room, the lake was on the other side of the building. But in the morning, when I opened the curtains, there were the mountains. By the end of the week, I would just check at sunrise, without getting out of bed, to see if there was a good view!



Breakfast?



Good food. This was probably the second night? I'm thinking spinach/mushroom lasagne. The first night we didn't take pictures, but the momos were too spicy to eat. We have pretty high spice tolerances, and we'd gotten cheese/potato ones, not something usually very spicy! We didn't want to leave a whole plate, so we took them with us.





The next day we rented motorbikes. Matan got one on his own for two days, while I rented one with a driver/guide for two hours. I did try driving it when we were way out of town, but I didn't get the hang of it enough to have fun with it.

So I saw waterfalls and a wedding (the red clothes). Went through a Tibetan refugee camp, but the carpet workshop was closed.









This is my guide.









We didn't go paragliding. The second picture isn't very clear, but there's a paragliding traffic jam up above!





Rice paddies.



This is our hotel from the side. Up above are all of the white towels hanging out to dry.



Didn't see much of this kid when he had the cycle. That's ok, he was really happy to be out on his own.



Views from just outside our room, on the balconey. Very nice part of the lake.





The last night we were in Pokhara, we went to a restaurant. Wish I'd taken a picture of that -- it was like parents' visiting day at summer camp. Of the four tables next to us, all were speaking in Hebrew. It looked like "mom and dad come to visit the kids who are out trekking and over break they could meet up in Nepal". There were two other tables in the restaurant that were not close enough to hear, but this was 20 out of 25 people in the place spoke Hebrew!

We left Pokhhara on Saturday, had an easy trip back to Kathmandu and an upgrade to a room with a bathtub waiting for us at the hotel. We went out with Rhoman who I met in Dhaka in Bangla classes. He is working with a mission in Nepal (and playing soccer) and occasionally going back and forth to Bangladesh.



Nepal nightlife. Closes down pretty early, actually.



The last morning I went to the "monkey" temple, not far from our hotel (about a half hour walk if you don't get lost, I took a cab since I was not feeling so great).



Take a deep breath!



I saw more dogs than monkeys, but I've heard there are many monkeys there and that they're pretty aggressive!



About midway up, looking up.



About midway up, looking down.



Mantras that get spun, one after another, as a prayer.



Very old statues.



Praying.



And that was the end. Internet site said the flight wasn't going to leave until 5pm, but the airport insisted it was leaving as scheduled at 2pm. Get to the airport at noon and they say, no, no point in going in since there's no check-in now since the flight has been delayed. What, we're going to go back to the city? We kind of insist on going in to the airport, Matan finds some electricity for his computer science homework, and I keep reading A House for Mr. Biswas. Got to Dhaka by 6:30pm and to the apartment, unbelievably, by 7:30pm. The heat and humidity managed to surprise me.