September 16, 2008 8:10 p.m.

Sitting without power again. It sucks at times! Like when my laptop and my camera need charging, like now. What a day, what a day!

As I was coming back from Boudha this morning I ran into our newest young monk. He isn’t really all that young at 14 years old, but he looks like he is 11 years old. He was in street clothes. Hrmm… I wondered. I hadn’t seen him in morning puja and thought maybe he was still ill. So I said, “aren’t you sick?” He said no, that he was headed to Boudha. Later on I learned that he had been kicked out of the monastery.

I think he was beyond help as far as Nepali life goes. He had been passed between so many relatives, the street, etc… before coming to live here and after being here for several month he never fell into line.

Anna and I headed out to get cold sodas for our trip, ate lunch and took off. I saw my first accident since I’ve been here. Which is absolutely freakin’ amazing with how they drive here. I don’t believe anyone was hurt, but a truck munched a motorcycle.

We got to Swambu and wow! Monkeys were everywhere! So cool and so scary at the same time. Anna had us dropped off at the stairway entrance. 108 very step stone steps up to the top. Wow! Tons of street dogs and monkeys there. Oh, oh, oh….

So yesterday Anna told me to make sure I don’t carry any food as the monkeys can smell it. I didn’t even think about my closed Mountain Dew… We are about 1/5th of the way up when I stopped to take photos of the monkeys. I have my dew pinned in my armpit so my hands are free for the camera. All of a sudden I feel my arm being tugged on. I squeal. See that it’s a monkey wanting my Dew so I opened my arm a bit to let the Dew just dropped down. Monkey caught it in midair and ran off with it. Waging his little butt cheeks at me like ‘thank you very much ma’am!’

Anna and I giggled about it all the way to the top. It was pretty funny. I didn’t get any photos of this particular monkey. He used his mighty stealth skills to sneak up on us as we didn’t see him coming from any direction. Anna wanted to see him open up the Dew and drink it. They make me too nervous to get too close, but I had them at times within a foot of me because there were just so many. Anna said that I had good instincts in the moment because I didn’t resist what the monkey wanted and I barely even moved until he sauntered off with my Dew.

Oh my goodness, what absolute beauty. On the way down I told Anna “I like our Stupa better” and she told me that the Swambu stupa is all male energy and the Boudha Stupa is female energy. Reminds me a ton of the vortexes in Sedona! Boudha Stupa is like the Canyon vortex by the river. That was mine and Mama’s favorite one. I could live there or here, hehehe.

I can’t wait to share the photos, but I think most of the photos will have to wait till I get home. I got one photo uploaded in an hour today. Not a very good rate and not fast enough for me to get even a fraction of the photos I’ve taken uploaded.

Josh, an American, has already been by to copy all the photos I’ve taken to a portable hard drive. Anna will be copying over a lot of my photos before I leave as well. Everyone is jealous of some of the shots I’ve taken. I have to go and get some printed before I leave for Lama Wangdu and for the monks as well.

After we left Swambu, Anna and I headed to Kathmandu proper. Although the particular district we went to I can’t remember the name. I had a good shopping experience there! Anna and I were looking at prayer wheels at Swambu. You cannot buy a single thing there as the prices are highly inflated. Oh my goodness inflated!

The prices are best in Patan and Kathmandu. Even thankas are much cheaper in Kathmandu than in Boudha. Thankas are magickal, sacred paintings of Buddhist deities and ideas. I want at least one super bad. We are talking about a couple of thousands of dollars to order in the U.S. and a hundred or two here. Big difference. I even told Anna that it would be cheaper for my husband and I to fly here to buy them than to order them online at home. Course you can buy a thousand dollar one here, but we are talking about comparable museum quality. I can settle with a hundred or two hundred dollar one, hehehe. That is if I don’t spend all my money first.

So I bought two very plain prayer wheels at one shop and then the next shop we entered I found a beautiful one that I purchased as well. It isn’t anything like what Lama Wangdu has, but it is pretty enough for me and much cheaper. So there is one thing off my wishlist. I picked up a pretty skirt for like 350 rupees which is around $5 US. I picked up some more gifts.

I am about all done with gift shopping except for a nice one for Tim. I won’t be able to get him anything like what he wanted, but I think I have a good idea for a gift somewhat along the lines of what he might like.

We ate at a very nice restaurant. Not fancy, but it was clean and well kept up. All of the people that work at this restaurant are deaf. I had a club sandwich (which was tolerable, barely) and French fries! It felt almost like being in the US which was totally weird. Hehehe.

We got back very late and only had enough time to drop off my stuff before heading down for evening puja.

I am really tired of shopping here. So many of the shop keepers piss me off! Sorry to say it, but it is true. They try to rip off foreigners as best as they can. I found out that I paid too much for some of the things I purchased yesterday. Anna used to import pashminas and other woven items into the U.S. so she apprised me of my purchases.

I thought I might pick up another pashmina since they are so nice and so cheap here and I love my scarves and shawls. I walked into a pashmina shop around the Boudha Stupa. I almost ran out of there in anger. The man told me 5,000 rupees for one. I turned and started walking out and he said, “best price madam?” That’s what almost everyone says here which means you give them your best offer. I told him no way, he was asking 4 times the amount it was worth. He kept yelling for me to come back all the way out the door. I am totally cool with paying fair price for something, but it upsets me when I purchase something to find out they must have been giggling in utter greed at the foreigner’s expense. Argh!

Dechen asked me to go shopping for a mala for her yesterday. I found one I thought she would like. I asked how much. I was told 1,500 rupees. I told him 600 rupees. He tells me I’m crazy that he can only go down to 1,200 rupees. I turned around and started walking out when I realized it was only worth 300 rupees. He yells at me and says “best price madam.” I said, “I told you my best price.” I continued out the door to have him yelling at me “I take madam, I take!” Knowing very well that he was going to sucker me into paying twice what it was worth. I wasn’t happy and kept walking. I talked to Anna today and she said she gets really frustrated with that as well.

Tomorrow we are having all day puja, a tsok puja (food offering ritual) for an American woman and a Tibetan man that drowned 49 days ago. They were warned not to go into the monsoon flooded river, but she was a lifeguard and thought better. I wouldn’t go into any river or any body of water here.

The river is a sewage system. There is so much actual sewage and garbage in the river that it stinks very bad. When the rains come all the shop keepers run and grab their garbage and through it into the streets because the rains will wash it away… right into the rivers. If I lived here I think I would be thankful for the rains as it seems to really cleanse the area.

I will have to remember not to litter when I get home. It is becoming almost ingrained in me to just through my garbage on the ground here. Course I will have to remember to speak proper English as well. I have started shortening my sentences. Taking out any unnecessary words. “Anna, we go to Boudha?” “How much cost?” “Cold soda? In plastic?” Now I understand why so many American speak such broken English. It becomes habitual. You add too many words and the people can’t understand you so you speak with as few words as possible.

And to stop picking my nose. Seriously! Your nostril passages get so clogged and everyone picks their noses here so I just started doing it. No tissues here. I don’t eat my boogers though if you were worried. Oh, and to eat normal. I kind of have been just shoveling my food into my face. I don’t get food everywhere though so I’m not totally fitting in. And I’m not spitting everywhere. And I won’t have to bow every time I enter my living room. Hehehe, oh how I will miss this place. It is so real and so naughty in so many ways according to the way I was brought up.

Tim tells me that Bella has 2 loose teeth. Hopefully she can hold them in her head until I get home. I don’t want to miss everything. I can’t wait to hug and kiss all my babies!!! Mama will be home very soon! Just 12 full days left here. Going by so fast and so slow.

I get to talk to people real soon! Woot! I get lonely here from time to time as I don’t have a whole lot of opportunities to talk. Anna said today that it will be quite the adjustment going home because of the lack of stimulus (this place stimulates your senses every second of the day in so many ways) and I reminded her that I have 7 kids and this place seems very calm and laid back to me, hehehe.

Well, power should be back on in about 45 minutes, woot! I’m going to log off for the night and start getting ready for bed. Talk to you soon!