Nepal > India

Namaste!

So, it would appear that Nepal is India cleaner, greener, cooler, and altogether more bearable nieghbour. Good for us!

We got here on the 28th, and immediately went out for drinks to celebrate Steph's birthday. We got there ten minutes before happy hour ended (because we got distracted by the excellent shopping on the way down!), but with a smile, an "It's my birthday!" and a Coke bought for the waiter, we got in six drinks (times 2) at happy hour prices. Whoop whoop! On the way back to the hotel, we kinda got scammed by a little Nepali boy on the street, but we're not going to go into that here because it's a little embarrassing...

The next day we went to the Monkey Temple (it has another name, but we can't spell/pronounce it). It was slightly scary for those of us who have a fear of primates, but the monkeys were generally pretty calm. We walked all the way up to the temple (365 steps, to be exact), then had a little spin on the prayer wheels to stock up on good karma for the rest of the trip. We were contemplating leaving (Steph thanking Bouddha that she had not been attacked by anything!) when a monkey strolled up to Kas and grabbed hold of the Fanta he had in his hand. At first, Kas put up a fight, but then common sense kicked in and he figured he'd rather spend the 70 rupees on a new Fanta than have his eyes clawed out for this one. We proceeded to watch as the monkey took the Fanta up onto a roof, ripped off the label, tried to open the cap with its teeth then gave it up as a bad job and left it on the roof. Jerk!

The next day we started orientation for the volunteering. Turns out we had 3 days of orientation! Eessh... We've met some good people, though, so it's been pretty cool. On our first day of orientation they gave us a Nepali culture class (1 hour, not very useful) then took us to... the Monkey Temple! Damn... now we had to climb those super-steep steps again!!! The next day, we visited Durbar Square, which makes for a good photo op but is really not that interesting to talk about.

Last night, we went out to an outdoor sports bar to watch the Brazil vs. Netherlands World Cup game. One of our newfound friends is Brazilian, so it was really very entertaining to watch. He was quite upset about the loss, but afterwards he got to drinking and he seems like he'll be alright! By the end of the night, it started pouring rain (one small section of the bar was uncovered) and our big group of volunteers (who have been sweating like mad for a week) decided to take our dancing into the rain. It was really fun, but the locals were giving us some rather unflattering looks... that is, they think we're nuts.

Today, we went to Bodnath Stupa, another Buddhist temple. It's basically a giant Buddha head sticking out of the nd, with eyes on every side looking out over the square. It's really hard to describe, so you should all probably just Google it! We spent most of the day there, then back to the hotel to pack our stuff for opur 6:30 departure tomorrow morning. We will be going to Pokhara, where we will start our orphanage placement on Monday.

On a final note, here are some words of wisdom heard just outside Bodnath in an incredibly beautiful moment. They were delivered by a little boy, maybe eight years old. He stood before Steph, his head precisely at chest level. He stared... and stared... and stared... then, he looked her in the eyes and said: "BOOBS!"

Miss you all,

Steph and Kas