NEPAL--Back to civilization

Day 18 & Beyond
What to say after that? Day eighteen we took the local bus back to Khatmandu. The guest house which we loved was full, there was another festival going on, a sort of Christmas meets fourth of the July, where the sister gives a blessing to her brother and gets a gift in return. We stayed in the Dolpo Guest House on Wongdee's recommendation (and for which Wongdee, no doubt, received a little baksheesh), and then we dined with Wongdee and his family in his one room apartment! We met his wife, his son, Dawa's wife and new baby, Chareen was there, another of Wongdee's brother, a cousin, Sukaman and Ganzaman, our former porters who were happy now that they were not carrying so much weight for us. Children were everywhere, some relatives, some neighbors, and we ate well a meal prepared, not by Wongdee, but by a brother.

Our last week in Khatmandu we ate well, we shopped for gifts, we shipped those gifts home, I was terribly sick (the goat meat, oh it was the goat meat), we had $5 stool samples taken (which turned out to be clean of all parasites), and we generally enjoyed our city. We never made it to the temples, India was for temples, but we ate pizza several times at Fire and Ice, which was expensive but delicious, and I read a great of Dickens, too much Dickens I think, for these pages smack of it. We also spent time doing email, making travel plans, and getting our affairs in order. Then we left and went to India, but that is not only another story, but another webpage!!!