spectacular mountain views

"a chicken on my head"

i thought this was the end of our 12 hour bus ride from siligurie to kathmandu. 3 hours from darjeeling to siligurie, some stopover time at the Nepalese border, and a busride of an alleged 12 hours from the border to kathmandu. was what we had in mind when leaving darjeeling (i was sad to leave my my new mountain home, and was slightly dreading the oncoming heat).

14 hours into the bus journey the rooster started crowing. having not slept a wink and being 6am, i lost it in uncontrolabel fits of laughter as Taka, our new Japanese friend franticaly searched for the source of the crowing above his head. aparently there was a rooster in the overhead bag compartment. i'm still a little confused.

i'm always confused in this part of the world. it's more the norm now than it is unusual.

our busride was 16 hours and by the time we arrived in kathmandu we had been on the road for over 24 hours. one hour to destination, slightly delerious after not having slept, i giggled to myself about the invisible crowing rooster, and tried to stay awake to take in the now breathtakingly georgous view seen from the bus window. The view was rolling green mountains partly consisting of  escalating flat sections of rice (?) fields resembling stairs for giants as they cascaded all the way down the mountains, and partly consisting of palm trees and bambo. the mountains stretched for as far as the eye could see, and the further our rickity old bus drove, the further we transcened into the mountains and the more remarkable the view became.

i love nepal. the view put me in a great mood and thoughts of rafting and trekking filled my head as the bus drove along the road that ran alongside the river.

we didn't do much today aside from attempt to repair my once again broken camera, ate some AMAZING food, and attempted not to spend the entirety of my nepal budget on shopping.  as we walked the store lined streets in the foreigner district of kathmandu, iwas drawn to each shop by shiney jewlery and pumping house music.  i didn't buy much, but tomorrows another day and i fear i may cave to my addiction.

smitty's nova scotia, i hope you have some summer positions.

ther's more to kathmandu than initially meets the eye. indeed it is now home to my new favorite temple of all times. "Swayambunath " or mokey temple. Here it is;

May 8/06

Monkeys and buddhist statues live harmoniously amoungst the trees of swayambunath temple. Defienetely the most visually stimulating temple i've visited, so called monkey temple is colorfuly decorated with prayer flags, large, brightly painted buddha statues & nepalese wrtitng on rocks. Our wannabe tour guid informed us that there are 360 steps to the top so jen and i are currentl sitting at the bottom, diligently writing and drwing, hoping our hangovers (free drinks at casino) will give us a break and allow us the strength to climb to the top where the "buddha eyes" await. These are of course the all seeing eyes that are painted on the temple, and i'm somewhat looking forward top being under the careful watch of those eyes, as opposed to the gze of about 15 nepalese men who are taking much too much interest in mine and jen's current pastimes. Actually, ttruth be told, the stares don't really bother me and i'm quite enjoying the curious glances i get as i enthusiastically state "I want my baby back baby back baby back baby back ' because the little monkey whom i was trying to photograph on the small buddhist pagoda ran away. There are just as many monkeys as there are men in my field of vision , and i'm choosing to focus my attention on the former because their antics of eating garbage and playing are much more entertaining than the men's antics of staring.

the journey to the top proved to be easier than expected, and we we pleased to see a whole group...tribe? of monkeys playing n the way up. one monkey was picking out bugs of another's fur with ferocios intent, the child monkeys were playing with long pieces of cloth, and becoming extremely entangled, much to my amusement, and there was even a little newborn baby, tightly grasping it's mothers belly. i never thought watching monkeys cound be so much fun. for the time being, they were my new favorite animal.

kathmandu had too much shopping to offer. namely too much cheap jewlery to offer. jen and i went our seperte ways following our visit to the temple, which allowed me to go  unsupervised into a very trendy jewlery shop. after spending only 45 minutes trying on jewlery, i walked out with what may have been copious amounts or necklaces, brcelets and earings in most peoples opinions, but an adequate amount for me. justifiabe? of course. every purchase i make is somehow justifiable. i will not allow myself to feel guilt over any purchase, since shopping is what makes me happiest. in this case, i was able to justify buying so much by the sheer cheapness of it all compared to western standards. about 2000 nepalese ruppees only equates to around $40 CAD. job well done erin *pats self on back*

and so, i left kathmandu with a feeling of accomplishment. i accomplished several things; learning the inerworkings of a monkey tribe (???) social hierarchy, was scrutinized by the buddha eyes, and i had added to my wardrobe a fabulous new collection of nepalese jewlery. oh, and i musnt forget the wonderful korean and japanese food we ate, since food is almoost up there with shoppig on my list of priorities. even in korea i had not sampled kimbap this good, and the japanese restaurant taka took us to, left me with a feeling of anticipation to move to japan.