Finally have the India Visa and the flight ticket sorted out. I am flying out to Varanasi from Kathmandu, to enjoy the bizarre "under age of 30" 30% discount from Indian Airline. It seems to be the only viable way to get to Varanasi from here, since the Maoist insurgency is quite apparent south of Kathmandu. I heard some travelers made it over to the border but I am really not in the mood of another adventure. And having seen the long distance buses packed with locals and some of them have to sit on the roof rack for hours and hours, I started to open my wallet for a ticket to India.

I spent good part of last few days reading books, in particular books about Tibet. Which make me start to think about the long and sad conflict between the Tibetan and Chinese people. And I found some old photos of Tibet taken 60 years ago before Chinese occupation. Even in the poorly printed color of bad and white, the Samye Monastery, the Potala, the fort in Shigatse, I just cannot imagine how stunning they once were and keep my eyes off the photos. I now have first person contact with all the places, the Samye monastery is nothing more than a few broken buildings surrounded by the circular wall with few old monks fiddling the prayer wheels. And now I recalled Daniel saying: "It sucks!". This comment is rather personal but totally understandable after an epic 7 hours ride from Lhasa just to see this sadly place. And the author of Return to Tibet simply said "it is destroyed", and it is destroyed not only in the physical way (in fact the Chinese government now started to restore them), it is the cultural and spritual destruction that being depicted from the photos made my head shaking.

A day trip to Naragakot

For some reason I feel very adapted to the road traffic in Kathmandu, especially when riding the motorbike running around city, sneaking across the smallest gap between cars and cutting people off -- I would definitely get many middle fingers if I do these in Canada...

The Thamel area in Kathmandu, small and tourisy, I bumped into many people that I met in Tibet. Like the Beijing sisters that we watched the sky burial few weeks back.

Went to a Tibetan refugee village, the biggest in Kathmandu. They are doing a massive praying in the monastery for world peace. It is amazing to see hundreds of Tibetan spinning their hand prayer wheels at the same time. This is my first Tibetan encounter outside Tibet. I notice although they have the same Tibetan dress than those in Tibet, it seems more fashionable and stylish in Nepal here. Perhaps here is more civilized and wealthier.

I had the same lunch with them, and it's free even for visitor like me (which I only saw a Swedish woman for the whole event). I am a little notorious about the hygiene, especially something from Tibetan (which they are the dirtiest by my western standard). And it has just proven to be true. I was basically quite sick and dizzily for the rest of the day.

Eating Tibetan food in Tibet is alright because of the high altitude and cold weather which made bacteria difficult to grow. But in the polluted city of Nepal, it is not a wise idea. Lesson learned.

Will stay in here for few more days as the India VISA takes days to process...