December 28, 2000 - December 13, 2001 14 Days in Nepal Welcome to the third world... By the time I landed in Kathmandu, I think I had been awake for something like sixty straight hours. But at that point, I was running on pure adrenaline. And when I finally got off the plane and saw Andrea, it was almost surreal. I'm not sure if it's because I was awake for 60 hours, or because I hadn't seen her in three months, or what. We spent the first night in a hotel near the airport and headed out to Nagarkot the following day. Nagarkot is kind of a resort town on top of a hill that overlooks the himalayas. We took a cab there, but the cabbie refused to go all the way because the road was in such bad shape. So we had to walk a couple miles to the top of the mountain. I'm glad we had to walk, because I was afraid the cab was going to flip off the mountain.
We spent New Years Eve watching some local group of musicians. They sang and danced and played their drum. It was surely a unique night. But it was just nice being out in the mountains with Andrea. It was also good catching up on some sleep! The following day, we took a day hike out to a stupa, which is some sort of religious monument. Along the way, we ran into our share of interesting animals, like this yak/cow inbred. It was amazing walking through these dirt poor villages and looking at the houses, the people, the surroundings.
The picture below is some sort of bull I think. But above and beyond the experience of seeing the animals was the experience of seeing all the children.
	Every time we walked into a village, we were swarmed by children. I felt like I was the Beatles or something. I guess they see the white skin and they associate that with big bucks and gifts. The unfortunate thing is that it's impossible to escape the role of tourist in a country where no one looks like you do. It's an open invitation for the kids to come over to you. The children asked us for everything from rupees, chocolate, bon-bons, pens. And they weren't shy at all. They would come right up to us and keep following us.
It was kind of cool at first, but after the first few times, I began to get scared whenever I saw some kids coming our way. Luckily Andrea was able to speak some Nepali and tell them that we didn't have anything to give.
I love this picture of these kids. They were amazed by my camera. I was amazed by their pet goat. I think it was the first time I ever saw someone with a goat on a leash. I think they expected me to pay them for taking their picture. Sorry guys. There's another picture of these kids making strange gestures with their hands around their eyes. I think they were imitating a camera. It was pretty funny. And yes, in case you were wondering, I do believe that flip-flops are the official footwear of Nepal.
Oh, when we passed by their village, someone had a transistor radio playing "Grease" by Frankie Valli. So that's what the third world is like...
	It's something how many animals you see just walking around. Especially animals that you're used to seeing domesticated, or confined to a coop or cage. Like this rooster. Notice the little chicks to the side of the rooster. I was surprised to see so many roosters walking around the villages. I was also surprised every morning when I was awoken by roosters doing their thing at the sun. And there were roosters waking us up everywhere we went- in the hills, in the mountains, in the cities, in the villages.

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