First Day in Kathmandu

     After a looong 24+ hr combination of flights and layovers I finally arrived here in Kathmandu.
Oh, the smell of disel.   Nothing like a wiff of that to let me know I'm on vacation.  This place is pretty
nuts!  Before I go into that, I have to say the flight into Kathmandu was beautiful!  Flying over the Himalayas and into the valley was a pretty spectacular sight to see.  I tried to get a quick pic on my phone out of the window but it just didn't do it any justice.  They are truly majestic.  So i get to Tribhuvan airport, pretty tiny and desolate.  I imagined it to be bigger and full of tourists but there weren't many people there
when I arrived.  After filling out my visa application on some old wooden round table with a few other foreigners I picked up my visa, changed some money (70 NR-1USD) and was out. 
I never had to go through customs in either Dehli or Kathmandu..interesting. Keshab (my program leader) was waiting with a sign with my name on it in the arrival pick up area.  Super nice, quiet guy.
It was like 70's F outside and he had a longsleeved dress shirt with a giant wool sweater over it.  I was sweating just looking at him wearing that!  In the car ride there he filled me in on the Nepal's
political, economic, and reformation process (or lack thereof).  Did you know that Nepal runs on hydroelectricity?  The ammount of energy available in Kathmandu varies with season and weather.  It is supplied in shifts to different parts of the city throughout the day for a total of about 10 hrs electricity a day.  Which would explain why right now I'm sitting in my dark little guestroom with my headlamp on because the power just shut off randomly about an hour ago.  There doesn't seem to be any schedule that I can notice yet. I'm sure i'll freak out at like 3am when it comes back on and all of my lights will come on in my room.  So after I got dropped off at my guesthouse (a barebones, dirty, one room on a noisy city street) I decided to go explore despite my lack of sleep and probable hypoglycemia.  I'm in Thamel, a section of Kathmandu.  The streets around here are tiny and packed.  Probably the size of a super small Chicago sidestreet but with constant 2 way, traffic of taxis, rickshaws, and motorbikes. I've seen multiple near accidents today and have proabbly unknowingly almost got hit also.  I stopped at a cafe/restaurant to grab lunch.  Had chicken curry and its entourage.  Delicious and very cheap.  The manager of the place introduced him self to me and
then became very interested in helping me figure out where I was going to venture today.  Everyone is very nice but also trying to capitalize and get you to let them be your tour guide.  But he was a very jolly, helpful guy so he helped me to map out what things I should see.  Then things got weird when he insisted on keeping the napkin that my gum was in as a remembrance of me...hmm.  That one goes up on the list with the man in Peru that offered to be my alpaca. 
     After lunch and a few pics I went back to exploring.  On the streets are many many shops that seem to be there for tourists.  If you turn down side streets (which I did inadvertantly many times) you'll see there are more locals and convient stores.  It's very easy to get lost in the area because everything looks the same, there are no signs, and no real pattern to the roads.  There are no addresses.  The way I look at it though is how lost can one be in such a place?  If you look at it as always being "lost" or not knowing where you are when you're somewhere new it's not as scary. 
     I'll tell you something scary though.  Being followed by a creepy man for a few roads even after trying to lose him!  And it wasn't like a "hey come do my tour" kind of following.  It was straight up "I'm stalking you" following.  I was on my way to visit Durbar Square and got off my path because I was trying to lose him.  He just wouldn't stop!  I will admit I kinda got scared.  So i hid in a sari store and pretended to be really, really interested in buying them for a while until I couldn't see the dude again.  After that I retreated back to my room to regroup.  I sat on the rooftop of my hostel for a few, then went on my second try.  I didn't want to lose my day!  But this time I took a taxi which only costed me less than $2.
      When I got to Dubar Square right away there were temples everywhere.  Buddhism and Hinduism are the 2 main religions here. Some practice a blend of both.  There are temples that combine archetecture of both religions.  This particular square had Hindu temples.  There were a ton of people trying to be your tour guide for the area.  Someone followed me for so long (and no i wasn't being too nice to him) that I pretty much paid him to be my tour guide so that at least I could learn from what he was telling me instead of listening to his annoying selling. He turned out to be a great guide, glad he was persistent.  I got more out of my vist there than I would have walking around alone.  Got a tika, saw a Gurka, saw Hippie temple (where famous western classic rock stoners like Hendrix used to visit), and saw the living goddess in her house. 
I also got away with not paying the entrance fee because apparently I look Nepalese.  I've been told that a lot so far.  I took a rickshaw home for less than a dollar.  When I got back home the power went out.  I'm exhausted so I'm goin to bed a little early (in my sleeping bag because these sheets are kidna
scary).  I'll update ya again soon! 
 
For some reason I can't get the picture upload to work so I will try to work on that next time!