Rest day today .. In my usual all or nothing style its been a full on for the last couple of days.
Thursday morning, Moni came around to help me wrap me into my sari. I just love them, they are so beautiful and feel gorgeous on. To help complete the 'localisation' she very kindly gave me a heap of bangles, some necklaces and some diamante tika's ( the red dots). There are lots of different takes on the meaning of the tika's but they have now become a bit of a fashion statement and range from the daub of red dye to many and varied, shapes, styles and designs of stick on tika's. LOL, I generally get stared at, at the best of times, but in the full garb I was getting rather self concious.
All the girls got together in the morning for a bit of festivity, and of course no one told me also present giving for tij. I ended up with a few more necklaces and both arms full of bangles and a few more packets of tika's. I was so humbled by their lovely inclusion of me and also felt very embarrassed that I didn't have anything to return. After the present giving we sat around yakking, shared some food and there was some singing. Luckily the songs where all in Nepali so they were spared my singing.
I got home and didn't feel like wasting all that finery, so I decided to check out one of the local casino's. Kathmandu actually has 4 casino's and the locals are not allowed to enter them. Strictly tourists only ... Well, when I said a casino is a casino is a casino, I didn't account for what actually passes as a casino here. The service is excellent, all patrons are given free drink, food and anything else they want, but the one I went to was small and boring would be about the best word. After blowing a bit on the slot machines (how mind numbing are they ?) and a dreadful white wine I decided to call it a night.
Friday morning and with the help of Audio Hijack and
Audacity, I now have a copy of The Sound of White. I got sick of streaming it, everytime I shut down I had to recache it. I will have to put
Audacity on the list of recommendations, a nice piece of opensource that I haven't used for a while. If you like playing with audio, this is a very good tool.
The visit to the festivities is off today, one of the girls husbands is not feeling too well after some food last night .. as unpleasant as it is for him, I had to feel better, it was as the same place that I have avoided since I got 'the bug' and if the locals can get hit as well, its not just my weak western stomach.
I decided to head off to Thamel, and walked again .... after some shopping for postcards and various other 'tourist activities', I went hunting for Kilroy's. I had heard they actaully do some nice wines there. What a lovely place ! There are so many nice places here, but they are generally hidden in the back of somewhere. Unless you know where to go, they are so easy to miss. Kilroy's is generally considered a bit upmarket for the local's, but it has a beautiful outdoor area, lots of shade, trees, flowers and very relaxing. A nice french sem sav, fish, chips and *heaven* a salad add to this mix a good book and my iPod and I was a happy person for a few hours. It started absolutely belting down while I was there and it just added to the ambience and atmosphere.
The owner and the staff are lovely and very chatty and I am now a 'card carrying' Kilroy's member :-).
Finally moved myself at 5 as I had an invitation for dinner, so back home to change and then back to Sam's bar to meet up. Spent a hour or two there with a lovely group of people (including another aussie girl from QLD), got the lowdown on some more have to do's ... The bungy jumping I think I will give a miss, but the hang gliding starts in Pokhara in October and sounds brilliant. I'm getting a real thing for flying, it really does something for me, especially take off and landing ... I love it !!! (Any volunteers out there with a private plane ??) .. I imagine jumping of a mountain is going to be 'slightly' different than taking off at a few hundred k's an hour, but the actual flight will be magnificent. Sooooo, off to dinner at a Newari Restaurant, the Newari's are one of the Nepali ethic groups and are Tibetan in descent, the food is very spicy and even with my new found taste for chilli and spices, it was still a bit rich for me. I had a bean soup which was very nice and of course a bottle of local vodka to wash it all down. It's just got to have germ killing properties, so I consider it a safety measure .... After dinner it was off to a nightclub ... woohooo finally I got to find out where the hidden nightspots are. It was actually very western, the full trendy funky club thing and I thouroughly enjoyed myself.
Dragged myself home early Saturday morning, a shower, a rest and had to clean up my feet. After the strappy high heels from Thursday and the new sandals yesterday, I've got a lovely collection of blisters, oh the joys of having 'delicate' skin. 5 in all and as your feet get so dirty here, I have to be careful and keep them clean so they don't get infected. LOL, with all the Elastoplast I am starting a new fashion trend. Patchwork feet ...
Moni and her husband picked me up in the afternoon and took me to Nagarkot, which is a fairly close mountain and very popular with the locals. Supplies in hand for the trip (vodka, Pringles and choccies), off we went. It was a beautiful drive, even though the road up is typical, very narrow and poorly maintained. Lots of lovely hair pin bends, very often with a bus heading the other way and you know who wins .... but the scenery and view, as always, was magnificent. There are lots of little 'restaurants' perched on the edge along the way, how they built them I'll never know. We stopped at a resort at the top which is run by some friends of theirs. It is built in the local Nepali style which is in a local handmade red brick and with lots of carved wooden embelishement. There where lots of terraced gardens all designed to take advantage of the great view of the Himalaya's. Apparently on a good day (which it wasn't) you can just see Everest.
We ordered some food added the supplies and had a great talk. Moni's husband is an IT major and is thinking of completing his Masters in Australia, so as you can imagine we had lots to talk about. There is something about the mountain air, its so fresh and cool and uplifting. It has magical qualities and you always come away feeling good after spending time up there.
Hehehehehe and now for the photo excuse, we have made plans to spend a weekend up there soon, so I will have time to get some good shots. I just don't know how to translate the whole thing into a photo. A picture is just a picture and to capture the whole panorama, the sounds, the atmosphere .. its way beyond me. Now the patchwork feet, thats something I should get .. and it appeals to my appreciation of wierd things :-)