Hi there! I would love to write a long involved post right now, but sadly we are at a rush at the end of our getting ready to leave on this trek and I just can't take an extra couple hours to make things perfect. We had the most spectacular day today! Quickly though, let me tell you about yesterday. We woke up early and travelled down to Kathmandu's Durbar Square, which is slightly newer in history than Patan's, but in my opinion, much grander. The 9th day of Dasain was yesterday, which is the last day of the 15 day Hindu festival that is believed to be the struggle between the triumph of good over evil. On the ninth day, all over this region, hundreds to thousands of animals (chickens, ducks, goats, and buffalo) are sacrificed to appease the Bhairab incarnation of Shiva, whose terrible likeness I posted a picture of above. We didn't actually see any of the sacrifices, but were very close to them. It is interesting that cows are so highly revered in Hinduism, and the Buffalo, who are nearly identical to Western eyes, are sacrificed. Put a picture of some cows wandering around the square. Also the door of one of the temples strewn with buffalo entrails from the year before - new decorations to be put up by the end of the day. We came back to Thamel in late morning due to unrelenting showers and spent some time getting last minute stuff for our trek. At that point we hooked up with Kishwor again at Boudanath - unfortunately it was getting dark at that point and so I've added a stock picture of the temple - it's too beautiful too not show it properly. From there Kish took us down to a riverside temple with monks chanting and celebrating, and also where a body was being cremated. Unlike anything I've ever seen, but really really interesting and beautiful.
So back to today. Today was the 10th day of Dasain, wherethe triumph of good over evil (waged during the previous nine days) is celebrated all over the streets and temples. We were honored to be invited into Kishwor's home and take tikka from his mother yesterday afternoon, followed by eating a delicious meal in his home prepared by his mother. It was such a different home than I have ever seen and was warm and wonderful and we felt very welcome there. Quite a beautiful experience. We whiled away a lot of the rest of the afternoon handing out in an alleyway area with Kish and some of his friends drinking beer and talking. Was great.
So now we head out into the mountains... so excited!! I definitely will have internet in one place (Manang)in about 12 days, but other than that I don't know. All the best to everyone - thinking of you!