Cat-Man-Do

Sita and I had an extra day that we weren't sure what to do with,  so we decided to go to Nepal for a day. When we showed up at the airport for our flight,  we were told we had to go on a later one,  but were not given much of a reason why. Waiting for a later flight severely affected us, since we were already working with a limited amount of time. Upon arriving in Kathmandu (pronounced Cat-Man-Do), we made our way through the bumpy, winding streets towards our hotel. Even as the biggest city in Nepal,  Kathmandu seems very small, and run down. The streets are covered in trash, stray dogs,  and the occasional monkey. The roads are in complete disrepair,  and with no red lights to be seen, traffic is a nightmare.

A redeeming factor of Kathmandu was the people. Everyone was kind, considerate, and talkative. The receptionist in our hotel told us to go to our room and relax, and to come check in when we were ready. I admit, this is my first trip staying in hotels, but I grew up staying in the occasional hotel,  and I've never seen that before! Most hotels make you get checked in before ever seeing the room, no matter how worn out and exhausted you may be!

After a few minutes of getting settled in, we headed out to walk around. The area of town we were in is called Thamel, and is jam packed with street vendors and stores with anything and everything for sale. I started getting pretty frustrated when some of the guys just walking around selling things would follow us for 5 minutes or more before finally giving up. Their price for whatever they were selling would be next to nothing by the time they stopped chasing. What I learned by this is that you never buy something right away! If you're ever walking around in a place like this, and you see something you like, just keep walking. These guys were cutting their prices by 90 percent before giving up!

After a bit of wandering, and a lot of souvenir purchasing, we happened upon a cool little pub called Tom and Jerry. Before walking in, we stopped at a little t shirt place. The elderly gentleman that runs the place said I could get any t shirt with any design embroidered on it for $5. I ended up asking him to do an outline of the world map with my blog title over the top. I'll be able to pick it up tomorrow!

Some local guys in Tom and Jerry asked us to play pool with them, and I really showed up. I was making some ridiculous shots! Of course I didn't tell the guys that I don't normally play that well ;).

After losing a lot of our time this morning, I'm happy with how the day turned out.