tired of Thamel

Tomorrow morning we leave on our trek from Jiri to Namche Bazaar (the main Sherpa town), and from there to Gokyo and Everest Base Camp. I’m really excited about the Jiri to Namche part because we are likely to be the only tourists around–most fly into Lukla and trek to Namche Bazaar and Base Camp from there. By starting in Jiri, we will also have more time to acclimate to the altitude.

We’re dying to leave Thamel, it is not really our style…ridden with hoardes of tourists…and yes, we are tourists too, we just don’t prefer to be around masses of them. It’s also incredibly loud, especially since our room last night was feet away from a ragin’ techno disco.

We were up early this morning and were some of the few tourists out and about. The Nepalis were up and seemed to be washing the city…scrubbing the storefronts and sweeping the streets. Dogs were everywhere helping with cleanup, and a cow also was picking through the trash.

One thing I’ve noticed that is very different from the U.S. is that man friends walk around holding hands/arm in arm/arms around each other or sit together in ways that are percieved by us Westerners as “cuddling”. It’s really very sweet and natural, though it would have such a different meaning in the U.S.

Today we walked up many steep stairs to get to Swayambhunath, a Buddhist temple over 2000 years old. On the way up, it seemed there were families everywhere, of people, dogs, and rhesus macacques. Even more so at the top. All the animals are completely ignored, and vice versa…there are puppies and baby monkeys everywhere but no one cares at all. It’s pretty excting for me to see my first wild primates, and rhesus macacques are so adorable and agile! At the top, trees were swaddled in prayer flags, and I really liked that there were many seemingly local people just there to check it out as well. Today’s a holiday actually, “Tihar”, festival of lights; there are strings of marigolds everywhere (I am actually not sure if they are holiday-related, it could be the norm), sand paintings on the ground, expanses of candles, etc.

I can’t figure out how to get my photos online, though I haven’t tried very hard. I’ll give it another shot next time we use the internet…which may not be until we get to Namche Bazaar in about 9 days or so.

Thanks for all the comments, miss you all!