Coming up for air...

Its been a while since I posted here, partly cos I didnt have Internet access and partly cos I didnt have anything to say. But quite a lot happened over the last one month.

Did I tell you I lost my money again, that too twice? But its ok, this time I lost only 32,000. Ive honestly stopped counting, theres no point...people say I'm just going through a bad phase or something like that but it doesnt help since I dont really believe in such stuff...

I was actually saving up to go to Egypt this year, but clearly that aint going to happen. So I went to Kathmandu instead, with 4 other friends. It was a really good trip but with a horrible, horrible ending. I cant even bring myself to think about it, let alone write about it! Still, it was a good get-away and I needed the break.

If theres anything I would like to remember the trip by, it was the food with a capital F. Perhaps its because I usually get to eat only garbage on all my field trips or whatever, but we really gorged on every meal and I woke up each day looking forward to it :) Cheesecakes, falafel, muffins, the classic pizzas - those yummy thin -crusted ones on wood-fired ovens, the hot baked-potatoes, the pancakes, the awesome Nepali teas (and of course,the coffee), the pumpkin soups, the tomato & basil salads, mushrooms of unimaginable variety, the driest martinis, the coldest but lightest beers, the deliciously but subtly flavored cigars - it was like a dream I tell you!

We were there only for a little more than 2 days but we got a lot done...and oh, we all got tattoos :)) It was on an impulse, but I am so glad I did! I didnt know what to get actually and the butterfly I had designed turned out to be too intricate. So I got my own version of the peacock feather with all the colors...I'll update this post with all the pictures once I get decent Internet. A word of caution on tattoos though - for Pete's sake, insist on new needles or better still, take your own needles.

We went to see the Pasupathinath temple (simply bcos it wouldve been a shame if we went all the way and didnt see it) but honestly, it gave me the creeps. We also went to Tribhuvan Bhavan - the palace of the King who had been recently de-throned...and we saw all the bullet marks where the Queen was shot at, it was really sad ..and of course, we went to Durbar Square, Freak Street and Thamel....We were lucky to be there during the Teej Festival...the whole place was painted in red...it was all lovely to watch but unbelievably crowded..The night-life in Kathmandu totally rocks too...every night we went out for drinks and listened to the all the bands there were...the music was a bit high-school but good nonetheless..and to be honest, it really made me  miss being in love :(

I also wanted to try bungee jumping, but I didnt because of something my colleague told me...he actually said...You are a very anxious person, so I wouldnt want you to look down and get a heart attack! Enough to put anyone off no??? Ordinarily, I wouldve tried atleast the mountain flight, but I didnt have money, remember???

Oh and about the shopping, I had to take it easy bcos of  my shoestring budget but at the same time, bring back gifts for lots of people, thats a tough balance to keep actually...I managed to buy quite a few things  -  a really beautiful old lamp that falls in lotus petals when unwound, a really heavy vintage lock (for my dad, ok? he loved it by the way), replicas of manuscripts, some from the monastery, Tibetan flags, a colorful mask- set of the traditional 13 Nepali Gods, T-shirts with trails of every Himalayan trek I intend on doing, lots of souvenirs with the famous Kathmandu eyes, boxes and boxes of After Eight mints (I cant believe they cost only 160 Nepali rupees) and lots different of flavors of tea..

Anyways, now I'm back in office and back to work...Thomaz is leaving to the US for  3 weeks so I'll have the house to myself...a month of work and nothing but fieldwork stretches ahead, thats pretty much it ...life is simple these days actually...