Motorcycle Diaries

I've been thinking all night long of how to put words to my day yesterday. The amount of things I saw yesterday for the first time in my life, in person was nearly endless. After I got back from my first motorcycle ride I ate lunch and then sat around reading for a bit. At 5:00 pm Ram my supervisor picked me up again and we headed out.

The point of the second trip was to head out of the city center so that he could show me where the Kathmandu Post building is located. After that we went to a zillion places, stopped on hillsides next to monasteries to watch the sunset over the valley. I saw Monks, monkeys, baby monkeys, goats, cows just chilling in the middle of the highway, Boudhanath Temple (we walked all around and inside buildings), children playing cricket, children playing soccer, children flying kites, prayer wheels, naked dirty children, polluted rivers, many police men, old women in beautiful clothing, I saw the world. But I heard something too--- on top of the massive hill, up next to a buddhist monastery there was a small building out of which bellowed Miley Cyrus's latest album Bangerz. Proving that this place is such a conglomeration of new and old... mostly old. It was a really awesome way to get to see the city, down the back roads and with a local; I just got to sit and soak it all up, trying to remember every detail on the way so I could return, by myself, with a camera.

Ram is already joking about teaching me to drive the motorcycle so he can sight see-- no worries mom and dad, I told him what an awful idea that would be.

I got home just in time for dinner of the forevermore lovely Dhal Bhat. We sat outside on the roof top where its a bit cooler (the kitchen is the top floor). Sitting outside at 7:30 pm is interesting here because Kathmandu has no street lights, so when the sun sets everything goes extremely extremely dark. And, for being in a capitol city its a unique sight to see.

I had a conversation with my host mom, Shila, about the mosquitos from back home after she apologized for them while we sat outside... you know all two of them that were around at the time. She was surprised to hear that we have many more back home.

There was just so much more that my eyes saw that I could explain. So many photograph in my mind that I hope will stay forever.

As a whole: Day Three was a hit.