Ella’s Last Post Before Everest!

The next day went by very fast. We walked around Pokhara and I bought a really cool new backpack and then it rained for about half an hour and we went to sleep. The next day we mostly drove and then arrived at Kathmandu uneventfully. We walked and toured for a couple of days, but yesterday we went to a town called Bhaktapur and walked around the town. As usual, there were many dogs, and we went inside a few museums to see the inside of old houses and climbed a couple of terraced temples. On top of one temple, there was a group of small boys kite battling in honor of a three-day festival going on at the time. They try to fly as high as possible and cut other kids’ kites with their string. Though it looks like all fun and games, it is actually very difficult and a person from one side of town could battle someone from the other side and still be able to cut his kite. After going to the royal section of the city or Durbar Square, where royalty used to be housed when they were in the city, we went to the pottery square and a potter let me mold a small vase. I forgot to write this, but Bhaktapur has many many ornate wood carvings, mostly window covers and door and window frames. They are phenomenal, I know I’m only 13, but I’ve been many places and these carvings were absolutely astounding… I bought a horn there and though it sounded like a fart when I first blew it, it actually sounds mostly good now!

The village of Boudhanath was next on our list and we saw an enormous beautiful white and gold stupa. The gold sphere was painted with actual gold leaf! We returned to Kathmandu and ate lunch, finishing the day’s homework and activities and then going to sleep.

Today, we did homework until 11 am and then went sightseeing again. We went to several villages. One of them was Patan, where we saw a museum, and another was Kirtipur. There, we saw an old mustard oil mill that is still working and got to smell the oil. We also got to smell the leftover fibers of the seeds, which smelled exquisite. We saw many ducks and got to pet some stray kids (baby goats, not human children) with their mothers and really enjoyed the town and the other towns. Aba bought 13 prayer wheels for our home in Boulder, and we are going to ship them there soon. When we came back from our excursion we ate and blogged… That’s right now! Before I post this, I want to warn you that we aren’t going to be able to blog for a couple weeks because we’re climbing to the Everest Base Camp, I forgot to warn you last time, sorry! We are flying to Lukla Airport, sometimes said to be the world’s most dangerous airport, but agreed to be in the top ten, so if we don’t write after a couple weeks, just know that we’re dead and we love you. Just kidding!!! I’ll write more soon, I hope………..

2-3-12-7-1-6-23!

Ella