Day 33

So the entire Everest region is under a bank of rain clouds, as is Kathmandu -- apparently extraordinarily unusual for the dry season.  All the flights to Lukla were canceled today so our flight has been pushed back until the 18th.  Today we wandered the streets and alleys of Thamel buying items for our trip -- stuff we have at home but that we didn't bring because of weight concerns.  We bought two pairs of trekking poles, two pairs of mittens, a pair of "Gortex" rain paints, two toques, a fleece shirt, and a pair of wool socks -- all for 30 bucks.  All "name brands" made in Romania I think.  The filling in my mittens are 80% "super goose down" and  20% "feather."

We still haven't gotten the chance to see more of Kathmandu -- hopefully tomorrow or perhaps when we come back from our trek.  Of the little we've seen it's a fascinating place.  Dirty and poor yes, but vibrant and abuzz.  The streets and alleys are clogged with rickshaws and motorbikes and cars and hash pushers and folks getting ready for their treks, all squeezing through a 15-foot wide corridor.  The Hindu holiday -- Daishan -- is coming to an end.  The holiday is the time to drink a lot of alcohol and slaughter animals.  It would have been nice to be more a part of the festivities -- the extent of our participation has been to raise a number of glasses of beer with our young hotel managers who couldn't make it home for the holidays and so are spending them here, on the rooftop terrace drinking large quantities of alcohol and barking at the moon.