Kathmandu

Well we are at the end of Day...errr 2 in nepal. Time is still confusing so bare with us. Peach is here with me helping with this entry. We just got back from dinner at a local jazz bar called New Orleans. This was suggested to us by many books and our main tour guide. Food was good, and the music was better. It was a nice mix of local area music with some very recognizable american tunes as well.

Today was spent sightseeigng. We visited three temples or stupas, one of which being the "monkey temple" and yes there were many monkeys.... not to mention a monkey only swimming pool, with slide. pictures will follow if possible. We were all very amused at the various monkey activity throughout the day. At this monkey temple were 365 stairs to get into it or a tourist entry point which required a fee of $1.5 US... Our guide stated that the stairs were for if you couldn't come to the temple everyday all you had to do was go up the stairs and it counted for a whole year of attending the temple.... now if only our churches could get on that bandwaggon...Prayer wheels are commonly used everywhere, that premis is that inside the wheel is a prayer written at least 1000 times... then when you spin it once your praying 1000 times...I hope your getting the common theme. Pray smart not hard.

The next temple was the holiest place for all Hindu's, Nepals population being split up into about 80%Hindu 10%Budhist and the other 10% made up of christians and muslims. At this temple we were shown the local custom of cremation by the river and sweeping the remaining ashes into the river. There were 108 shrines to Shiva there, the story of Shiva and his family is quite the story closely relating to many soap operas... thus we wont get into it.

Lastly we went to the largest Stupa (temple) in Nepal. it was surrounded by a circular courtyard with many shops and religious buildings. Our guide took Peach and I on a lil walk on the rooftop of the Stupa and was giving us an indepth explaination of the Hindu teachings.

Weather today was around 35C and incredibly hazy in the morning. We struggled to stay hydrated but have been keeping it in the front of our minds and are succeeding. Tonight we have to repack all our bags and prep for a 0530 departure from our hotel for a 0630 flight to Lukla.