Still no pictures!

So we thought we had it made when we discovered a wireless internet connection at the hotel. Unfortunately, like a lot of technology in Nepal, it turns out to be pretty unreliable. When I found connections that were fast, there was no USB access to get the pictures tranferred. And where there was USBm the uploading is forever. I may have to wait till I get back to Kathcmandu next week, when I have nothing on the schedule for a day.

So, here's the story so far: Since we've been back in Kathmandu, we have gone a number of Durbar Squares. This was very confusing to me at first, until I realized that "Durbar Square" is a generic term for a palace square. At one time, Kathmandu was three kingdoms, with several palaces. So different areas have different Durbar Squares. We've been to several stupas as well, which are Buddhist temples, all surrounded by prayer flags. I've seen monkeys at the hotel as well as at "Monkey Temple", a stupa well known for the monkey population.

I cannot decide if the drivers here are the world's worst or the world's best. Rush hour in Kathmandu consists of cars, trucks, vans, motorcycles, rickshoaws, bicycles, mothers walking children to school, alder children walking to school, men walking to who knows where, not to mention the people carrying large bottles of water, cages of birds, etc. And then there are dogs and cows to deal with. Despite the fact that there are no traffic signals or anyone directing things, it all keeps moving along!

In the Durbar Squares is the first time that we have been mobbed by people aggressively begging or selling things. In the middle of the hot sun, it's really unpleasant. We ended up cutting one day short, because the daughter started to feel sick, and returned to the air conditioned comfort of our hotel.

Today we begin our trek to Tibet. It will be mostly overland driving overseen by our chinese overlords. Wish us luck and a fast internet connection so I can post some pictures!