Kathmandu, Part 1 (Mountains and Monkeys)

I know I said the Taj Mahal was next, but I changed my mind.  Our trip to Nepal was too short.  We are definitely going to have to make another trip.  We had planned on taking a trip up to Everest, but the weather was rainy and cloudy.  We did take a plane trip to see it.  We saw it peaking over the cloud cover, which was totally cool.  The picture below is as close as we could get.  Hopefully we can get back in the fall when the weather is better.

Mt. Everest (29,000ft) on the left.  Lhotse (27.900ft) is on the right. 

Some friends told us about a quaint little hotel in Kathmandu, Hotel Courtyard, in the Thamel area.  Thamel is the tourist area of Kathmandu.  While some people may want to shy away from it, we enjoyed being in the middle of restaurants, etc.  An added bonus is that there is a camera shop on every corner, which came in handy when a monkey stole my lens cap!  The owners of the hotel, Michelle and Pujan, like to keep it small and friendly.  They were wonderful hosts!  The first night we were there, they arranged an authentic Nepalese dinner at a local restaurant for all their guests.  Who would've thought a year ago that we would be having dinner in Kathmandu with people from all over the world?

Hotel Courtyard, Kathmandu, Nepal

Kathmandu Valley

There were monkeys everywhere.  I love monkeys, so I thought it was so cool to see them just running wild all around us.  They weren't the least bit bothered by the fact that we were there.

Swimming pool for monkeys

More Nepal coming....

Delhi

Weston and Taylor at the
India Gate, Delhi.

I am back in Tennessee getting ready for Matt’s wedding.  When I went to church, I was gently reminded that I haven’t put a new blog post up in over a month! Yikes, time flies!

We've had a busy time since my last blog post.  Mike's job continues to keep him busy and challenged!  It's very different doing business in India compared to the US.  He's learning the ins and outs of it and what to do and not do.  

Weston and his girlfriend, Taylor, came to visit for 3 weeks in July.  Three weeks sounds like a long time, but it really isn’t.  There was so much I wanted them to see and not enough time to do it.  So, we decided to take them to Delhi/Agra and then to Kathmandu, Nepal. 

Besides the compulsory mall trip, in Delhi we visited the Red Fort, Qutab Minar, India Gate and the Lotus Temple.  We crammed as much into 2 days as we possibly could.  

Lotus Temple, Delhi

The Lotus Temple, the Mother Temple of India, is a Bahai house of worship.  It is open to people of all religions.  We didn't get to go inside because we were there on a Friday, which is the primary day of worship.  There were thousands of people waiting in line to get in.

Qutab Minar

Qutab Minar (Delhi) is the tallest minar in India.  Contruction began on it around 1200 A.D.  It was constructed as an Islamic monument, however there are many Hindu influences in the carvings on the walls of the buildings that surround the minar.  It used to be open for people to climb the 379 stairs to the top of the 238’ high tower.  However, in 1981, there was an accident when the electricity went out resulting in total darkness in the stairway.  Forty-five people (mostly children) were killed in the stampede. 

Carving on the walls at Qutab Minar

Close up of the carvings on the walls and pillars at
Qutab Minar

That was our quick tour of Delhi.  Next stop....Kathmandu!