Pictures from Bahktapur, Nepal

O.k., we're idiots... we had our USB cable afterall... here are a few pictures from the last week or so.

Here is a picture of a 5 level Newari pagoda style temple, the largest of it's kind, and a picture of a famous carved window called the Peacock Window.

Varanasi... Been there, done that...

Well, we took the boat ride on the Ganges ("Mother India") River this morning and saw many interesting things. This is the kind of place that you visit, take photo's to prove you were there, but I can't imagine ever wanting to return. It's very filthy. Really, I'm not kidding. I almost hurled walking through one of the alleyways leading from the ghats along the river to the main road because of all the garbage, smell of urine, cow shit, and flies etc. I know it's a holy river, but it is pretty gross watching people bathe in the filthy river next to piles of garbage. We also saw a few temples, but only one allows non-hindu's inside, and can't take pictures inside also.
We saw burning ghats too (cremation site). They dump the ashes (or perhaps whatever didn't burn thoroughly?) in the river too. No photo's allowed at the burning ghats.
Can't post photo's from here anyway unfortunately, but will hope to update a few pics from Bahktapur Nepal, Chitwan NP, and Varanasi if possible from our hotel in Kahjuraho tomorrow evening. Long (6 hour) train ride to get there tomorrow.... that should also be interesting... Hopefully we can get a rickshaw to take our bags to where our driver will pick us up to take us to the train and we won't have to drag our bags 1/2 mile down the street tomorrow morning.

Goodbye Nepal... hello India!

Back to a computer again! But, can't post pictures from here...
We were in Chitwan National Park for the last couple days on a jungle safari. I feel the need to rant a bit here because we did not have good luck on the safari animal viewing. The day we arrived was day 2 for a group of 52 high school students from Hong Kong, and they weren't exactly very quiet, even on elephant safari (yes, we rode an elephant!). Then, we were looking forward to the next day when they would be gone, and we then realized that the 50-70 year old German group (26 of them) were almost just as loud! Especially in the evening after a few beers... I'm sure the animals were 10+ kilometers away after that racket. We did see some deer, monkey's, wild boar, peacock, owl, stork, but NO rhinoceros! So, not very pleased about that since they say that you are "almost guaranteed" to see a rhino from elephant back. We do not have luck with wildlife still it seems... Honestly though, I didn't think the lodge did enough to remind people to be quiet in order to have the best opportunity to see wildlife. I now understand why the Brits and Aussies always rant about the German tourists... they are quite obnoxious actually. At one point I said to the guide "excuse me, but is it better if we are all quiet to have the best opportunity to see wildlife?" and he said "yes, quiet is best", and 10 minutes later on our walk they were back to yapping again! Unbelievably rude.
Anyway, we left there this morning (and by the way the jeep has to ford a river to get out of the jungle so it's an interesting ride!) then our driver picked us up outside the park for the 4+ hour ride back to Kathmandu ... then a quick stop at Fedex before the airport.
(ATTN: MOM - having trouble logging into e-mail, we mailed a box Fedex to you with a few things, including our hiking boots and other clothing and it should arrive in 2-4 business days.)
Flight to Varanasi was interesting. The Indians don't like the Nepali's, and vice versa... so, after going through security screening, bag search, x-ray etc... and the plane over 1 hour late, we then had to have bags searched AGAIN, ON the RUNWAY as we were boarding the plane! It was ridiculous. They confiscated our batteries, and we were suprised to see them again after other luggage came through.
Varanasi is interesting so far. After meeting our guide / representative sent by World Expeditions, then 30 minutes drive through the crazy streets (bikes, rickshaws, motorcycles, cars, trucks, pedestrians and cows all fighting to pass each other), we then had to put our luggage on a rickshaw because the center of the city is not open to cars, then the rickshaw driver wouldn't go any further and we had to walk with our bags a couple blocks (thank goodness they roll and we mailed home the hiking stuff!).
Tomorrow is 5:30 am boat ride on the Ganges to view the ghats, one major one is right outside our hotel. The river is filthy with garbage, and that's from what we can see tonight. I'm sure tomorrow we will find more filth. Lonley planet guide says it's pretty much an open sewer and has bacteria levels 1 million times acceptable levels! Hindu's come here to BATHE in this river! Yikes! I hope my clothing don't even get splashed a single drop!

After a few days spent in Kathmandu, on Thursday morning we're off to Chitwan National Park for three days and then we fly to India. We're not sure what sort of internet connections we'll have in the park, so it may be several days before we post again.

We spent Wednesday in the city of Bhaktapur, about 45 minutes east of Kathmandu. It is a city known for it's many temples, woodcarvings, and pottery makers. Had some trouble uploading photo's so, we'll try again at a later time.

Random trek pictures

Cute sherpa girl (not in traditional dress though)

and why you do not eat meat while on trek in Nepal!

We will try to post video of yaks and flight leaving Lukla tomorrow...

More trekking pics

Along the trail there are many beautiful things to see other than mountains, so just want to share a few...

Everest Memorials

Mani stones / walls

prayer wheels

and door hangings

Tengbouche Monestery

The highlight of the descent was Tengbouche Monestery. We attended a chanting ceremony in the evening, thought we could make it through the whole thing, but 2-1/2 hours later, it was dinner time, getting dark and we had no lights to get back to camp, and our feet were freezing (you have to take off your shoes). It was very beautiful, but I had wanted to take pictures and you can 't take pics during the ceremony.

Before leaving the following morning, we got lucky because morning chants were on a break, and the monestery was opened for a short time and we met a young monk Mingme (who chatted with Tammie and I for 45 minutes and gave his e-mail address!).

Here are a few pics from the monestery. Exterior gate with monestery beyond, and an interior.