Then there was the ride through town. OH MY GOD! That’s when I knew I was really on the other side of the planet. The chaos was incredible. There are taxis, buses, rickshaws, bikes, motorbikes, pedestrians, and animals everywhere on the road. There seem to be no rules of the road, just a general understanding that when other cars are coming, you veer to the left (like in England), and there’s a lot of honking of horns. I’m very surprised that no one gets hit, although near misses happen constantly. It’s all very dusty dirty, with lots of car exhaust, since almost no one has air filters, and I think cars use diesel here. The streets are lined with little dark shops, and lots of bright posters and signs in Nepali, and filmi (hindi) music blaring. Then when we got to Bodhnath where I’m staying, that was even more shocking. There are many mazelike tiny dirt streets that I was surprised the taxi could travel on, especially without hitting anyone, with the same little shops lining the roads, but many more Tibetans around. The shops are all elevated from the street by a couple of concrete steps, I imagine to get above the rivers of water that can develop from the monsoon. We finally found my guesthouse, which was a big relief. It’s like a little oasis, and I’ve come to find out that there are many such little oases here in Kathmandu, which you’ll see from my pictures. I got a double room, as that’s all they had, at 400 rupees a day (about $5.50). It’s very nice, has large windows on three sides that look out into the gardens there, and Sechen Monastery can be seen not too far away, which you can see in the picture here. I'm only putting up the pictures that came out ok, so I'll take more pictures of the guesthouse later.