The Valleys
- We woke up at 6 am again to go for the Everest flight. After waiting around for over an hour, they cancelled the flight due to weather. Looks like we won't see Everest from a plane on this trip, but we may still have a couple opportunities to see it from various lookout points on a clear day.
- Bungee jumping isn't offered on weekdays in the down season (aka now), so we won't be able to go while we're here. I guess I'll have to find another scenic suspension bridge to jump off while attached by an elastic rope...
- A monkey almost attacked me when I got too close to him to pose for a photo. I wasn't trying to pet him, but he was in the middle of his grooming session with his friend, and I startled him. I backed away carefully and said "sorry, sir, please carry on..." and he went right back to enjoying his bath. Phew - rabies scare averted. I'm not sure why I called a monkey "sir," now that I think about it, though...
- Kathmandu valley in the literal sense of the word. We drove around the valley again a bit today - visiting Dashinkali and Patan. The valley continues to astound me with its idyllic fairy tale beauty. I took way too many photos of the views today, but with every bend in the road we got a vantage point of a new little alcove with its own charm. How can I not photograph all of them? 
- I saw a dead body for the second time in my life. The first time was years ago at the only open casket funeral I've ever attended. Today we visited another crematory ghat - though today's was larger than yesterday's and was in use. We saw two bodies being burned on the riverside and a third dead body waiting to be burned. It was sad - and definitely not a sight for the faint of heart. I know I'm going to see more of this later in my trip when I visit Varanasi, so I won't go into the full narrative about the custom in this post. I'mthickening this in the valleys not because I wish I hadn't gone to see it - I'm glad I did - but it's not an easy sight to behold. 
- All of the sites we visited today charge relatively large entrance fees for foreigners and nominal or no fees for Indian and Nepali people. Also many of the oldest and most beautiful temples don't allow non-Hindus into them. Ami isn't an Indian citizen, and she isnt a Hindu, but her brown skin means that she can get away with paying the lower fees and going int the restricted areas. I don't hold this against her - of course - but the inherent racism in the system is a little disheartening. At the entrance to one site, a local who was hanging around the entrance says to Ami "you don't have to pay anything because you're Indian. She (pointing at me) has to pay 1000 rupees." I respond with a sardonic "how do you know I'm not Indian too?" He doesn't realize I'm kidding, so responds with a very serious "Because of your skin."
- We visited a temple dedicated to the goddess Kali, where people go to make animal sacrifices to the goddess. We had to walk past stall after stall of chickens being held in cages, ready to be sold to whomever wanted to cut ther throats whilst asking the goddess for some kind of luck or favor. Poor chickens :(
- We went the wrong direction to get to the Kali temple and ended up scaling a freaking cliff (I may be exaggerating - there was a staircase, but it was a mountainous staircase). At the top there was indeed a temple, but not the one we had been looking for. The silver lining here was that the views from the top were amazing...
- Being an idiot, I ate a full chili pepper in one bite, figuring that I'm used to spicier food now, so it couldn't be that bad, right? Wrong. Very very wrong. My mouth was an inferno for a good 15 minutes. I didn't cry...even though I really wanted to.
- We came across a group of Hindu holy men at the ghat. This in itself was a cool experience, but it was quickly diminished by their willingness to pose for a photo in exchange for a fee. It's still a cool photo, at least, though less authentic than I'd like. 
The Peaks
- The mountain peaks we visited today offered more stunning views of the Nepalese countryside. So much beauty, everywhere you look. 
- TEA! The tea here is abundant and delicious. Nepali masala chai is good, but my favorite is jasmine tea. At one point today we were sitting at a rooftop restaurant, overlooking Durbar Square in Patan, sipping tea and watching the sunset. 
- We visited a temple affectionately known as The Monkey Temple - named so because of a colony of monkeys that lives at the temple, though it's official name is Swayambhunath. This is a Buddhist stupa on a hill overlooking the city of Kathmandu. Not only was the temple itself stunning - with gold leaf embellishments and Tibetan prayer flags draped from the tall mountain trees, but the view of the city was incredible as well
- I wore the right shoes today and so didn't end up with soggy, muddy feet and pants (and avoided the resulting crankiness).
- Baby monkeys!!!! We saw lots of them today, mostly being carried around by their mothers. So cute!!
- Mo-mo's continue to be the best dumplings I've ever tasted. They serve them with a spicy dipping sauce after preparing them fresh and to order
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- Thukpa is the name of the soup we had on Sunday. We had it again today and it continues to be my favorite soup ever.
- We joined in the local tradition of climbing onto a nearby temple and just sitting and relaxing. We did this in Patan Durbar Square. With the sun on our faces and our feet dangling off the edge of the temple steps, we people-watched and chatted.
- I FINALLY got to attend an Indian wedding (well, Nepali, but close enough). We were walking around Patan and heard dance music coming from a building next to a temple. We ask some people what the event is I side, and they tell us it's a wedding reception. There are lots of people in elegant sarees and suits entering the hall, so at first we hesitate to enter because we're so underdressed (we were both wearing kurthis). After a few seconds, though, we decide to go for it - after all, what's the worst that could happen? We enter the room and immediately draw stares - I am the most conspicuous wedding crashed EVER in this scenario. My instinct was to turn around and flee, but then...the DJ started playing my favorite Bollywood song. We embrace our conspicuous attendance and make a lap around the room, dancing along the way to the catchy beat. I'm pretty sure we could have stayed a while longer with no one saying anything - just staring...intently. So we left after a few minutes, but I'm going to count it anyway!
- I'm feeling good about my bargaining skills here. Everyone from our taxi driver to souvenir vendors to anyone else eventually bends to my will and gives me a huge discount. Of course that means that the prices they are originally quoting me amount to highway robbery, but I'm going to choose to focus on the bright side here :)
- At lunch today we ended up chatting with a German schoolteacher who is volunteering here in Nepal for her summer break. She is working for free as a teacher in a private school here that is exclusively for orphans and abused children coming out of the slums of Kathmandu. These children don't have a single opportunity in the world until the school director finds them and brings them to study. Some of them don't know how to speak at all before they attend school - let alone read and write. These are abused. Holden, neglected, beaten, who knows what else. This is depressing to hear about of course, but my heart is uplifted by hearing about this school that serves as a haven for these children and provides them with a way out of the slums.
- We finally found the Kali temple and Dakshinkali, and we're relieved to discover that the animal sacrifices were done for the day. As interesting as that sounded, I don't think I could have observed the slaughtering of animals without crying or doing something equally insensitive and inappropriate.
- The Dakshinkali area had these fun rows of bells hanging everywhere, which people would ring as they walked past. I don't know the meaning of these bells, but it was nice...
That's all for today, I suppose. Tomorrow we're off to Pokhara - yay!
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