Kathmandu!

So, we have finally reached Kathmandu! A vibrant, muddy, unpredictable city surrounded by mountains. We have had authentic Nepalese and Indian food, fantastic flavours and smells. One of my companions described the city narrow, which is so true when walking around, all narrow alley ways with lots of traffic and whistles. They seem to have their own ways of communicating in traffic with whistles and it seems to work in this organised chaos. Wouldn't work for five minutes in any European city, my hat off for them :)

Another fascinating thing I have noticed are the cable nests, see picture below. This one is not the worst I have seen, but it does show how remarkable it is! There are also daily power cuts..

The monsoon season is currently ending, and it has rained a lot. It's wet and muddy at most places and some roads are damaged. Today, when going to the school we helped painting, we drove 1.5h outside the city, past Bhaktapur. Narrow roads and women working on rice or corn fields. They build very smart with flat roofs so they always can extend when there is money for it. Many houses are occupied on lower floors even if they don't look done,  but surely clever to ensure future builds.

Traffic lights are not on but there seem to be a system that works there too, and even if we crossed at zebra crossings, our rule was more to stick together to be visible. 

Our guide Pemba knows his way around and has been very helpful. Now bed time, we have to getup tomorrow at 5am to go to the airport. We only hope that the weather is nice to we can depart. The previous group is stuck in Lukla due to bad weather. I'm glad though that they are, as I don't want to take any risks fling in there, it's scary enough anyway...

Will soon report from out project visit! 

Jen x