Nepal Day 16

 After a good nights sleep at the Riverside Springs Resort, we headed back to Kathmandu.  It was still as dirty as I remembered.  Above is on of the rivers as we were driving back to Thamel, the tourist district.

 This is what is found in the rivier....yuck!

 Now many of you may find these next two pictures really foul and I can admit that they smelled really foul.  I am not sure what they are doing with these water buffalo skins, but here are a buck of hides all stacked up on the back of a bike.

 On the bus we drive through the meat section.  For some reason the meet inside the shop looks like it is  on fire, but in reality it was the light that was shining from above on the meat.  I love when my meat is just hanging out in the dirty streets when I buy it.

 In order to demonstrate the dangers of visiting Nepal, Natalie is displaying her bruise.  I had multiple bruises as well....on my arms and legs.  We both gathered multiple splinters on this trip as well.

 Natalie and I took some time in the afternoon to visit the Monkey Temple, Swayambhunath.  All of the temples always have the prayer wheels.

 All of the temples start to run together.  They all have Buddha's eyes staring down at you.  It is a little creepy.

 Surrounding the temple, amongst the little stores were some men playing chess.

 Below are some of the ornamentation on the temple and surrounding shrines.

 I really loved the look of many of the shops that were selling souvenirs.

 As we were walking around the temple we saw a little monk who was playing with a toy.  He was so cute!

 There is a reason this temple is called the Monkey Temple. There are holy monkeys wandering free all around the temple.  They were just like the stray dogs that are found throughout the villages. It still made me a little leery to get too close.  I had no desire to we attacked my monkeys.

 The butter lights that were being lit in the Buddhist monastery surrounding the temple. 

 That evening we went to a restaurant to eat some more Nepali food and watch more dancing.  It was still the Dewali festival in Nepal.  Someone had created this artwork on the street out of beans and other seeds and grains.  It was very beautiful.

 At the restaurant we watched some more dancing.  The dancing they showed came from different regions throughout Nepal.

 We all sat on the floor at the tables to eat our meals.  It was a beautiful meal, but I will openly admit that I was tired of eating the same Nepali meal over and over.  The people in Nepal really do eat the same thing everyday....daal, rice. saag, and curry....over and over and over.  I was ready for something new.  They served us momos as well, but after eating several terrible momos, while searching for something that tasted as good as the first momo we at in Chitwan, I could not get myself to stomach them.

For Dewali, this particular day was Brother and Sisters Day.  On this particular day the girls give their brothers gifts of food.  The brothers give their sister nice presents.  Well, Staci, on of the expeditioners, could not resist giving her brother, Seth, a pigs head to eat.  He has a specific phrase before meals at home that had something to do with a pig.  It was so gross, but at the same time so cool.

This was the last time that we spend with SHe and Choice Humanitarian.  It was a great evening and a great closing to our expedition.  We went on this trip with a ton of amazing people.  I would totally recommend it to anyone.  I am so glad that I went. Thanks Natalie.