Howdy,

Well, still in Kathmandu and personally I really would not make it your vacation destination but if you only have a few hundred rupees this is definitely the place to be.

The Monsoon season is setting in and will last 3 months. I have never seen rain like a monsoon rain from last september. It is so intense!! I will miss it though leaving before it really hits.

You know I still have not gotten my visa/atm card but should get it this week. I am not saying this for pity but I just want to take a look at how little you need to survive here. I came back the end of April from India and have been living off of 6,000 rupees since. 6000 rupees is $75 u.s. dollars. I now have 200 rupees left after 1 month. That is $2.50. Have been not going anywhere and living off the bare minimum. If it was not for my friends here I would have never been allowed to stay in Nepal for the last 9 months. Living with Rajendra and his family, Yagya and his brothers, Binambra and Mukunda and his wife. For that I am sooooo greatful. It’s been a great home base!!! I am living with my friend Mukunda and his newly wed wife now. It comes with a great story of them being from different caste systems but still being able to marry for love as she was set to be arranged for marriage to a boy from the same caste she did not like. Mukunda took her away to a temple near by and married in secret telling the family later. I have also met her family and they seem to like Mukunda quite a bit. Rashya (Mukunda’s wife) serves me tea all the time and makes a mean Dhal Bhat!!! So there goes room and board. My friend Binambra actually owns the house and lives upstairs and also has no problem with me living here.

O.k. so 200 rupees. What can I buy, well I can buy enough food here including vegetables, rice and Dahl for probably a week serving 4 people. A coke costs 20 cents. 1 pack of ciggarettes is 90 cents (even for marlboros Carter) and no Kobs I have not started again. You can buy a pair of socks and underwear for 50 cents. You can ride 45 min. away to Bactipur ( outside Kathmandu) on a bus for 12.5 cents, a night in a hotel is $3.75………on and on and on. Hard labor construction workers make about 140 ($1.75) rupees a day and that is doing everything by hand even spreading concrete……. really no tools mixers or equipment?! A good paying job here is 20,000 rupees a month, $250. Most do not make close to this and a really well off person makes 120,000 rupees which is about $1,500 a month. It’s really quite amazing. I think b/c of there culture and situation it brings out support for one other no matter where a person goes. That is except the people always trying to rip the tall white skinny foreigner off with the massive fro!!! Oh yeah and I have lost 20 pounds since I have been here. Nice and slim!!!! Really my hair is like an african american fro now……damn handsome. This life is really quite humbling……It’s also an easy going life that some Nepalese take advantage of by never working and just living with their joint family. Whatever works?

I have been studying, eating rice, chasing girls and watching movies. I take the GRE this thursday and am finding out how horrible my vocabulary really is!!!!??? Getting a little nervous but we’ll see? So not much here. I have met another dozen friends in the last month but no time to spend now.

I am flying to Thailand this Sunday the 31st!!!! I just hope they let me take my guitar on the plane!!! I will just look like a really sad and helpless musician…….maybe the stewardess will help me out!!! ha ha ha…..it usually works =-) I will be there for 10 days then I am flying back to my home of Montana where the white tail run wild and the rainbow fight hard!! Ha ha god that is cheesy………but true.

Really gotta keep studying……kind of slacking.

Wish me luck!!!!

OH YEAH and do not think I would miss the chance to jump off of a bridge 500 meters up? Still bungee jumping!!!! woo hoo!!! I am going the day after my test if all goes right!

To give you an idea a 25 story building is 76 m (250 ft) and the statue of liberty is 92 m (301) ft compared to this jump of 160 m (500 ft) yeahhhhh!!!

I pulled this off of the website

Ultimate Bungy at The Last Resort in Nepal may be the most spectacular Bungy Jump on the Planet. This remarkable 500ft (160m) drop into the Bhoti Kosi River gorge on the Nepal/Tibet border is the longest Free-fall in the world. Designed, constructed and operated by very experienced Kiwis to exacting international standards your safety is guaranteed. It is Nepal’s Ultimate Rush.

Located a 3 hr drive from Kathmandu and 100km northeast to within 12km of the Tibet border, there is a 166m wide steel suspension bridge over the Bhoti Kosi River gorge and at an of altitude 3600 feet, which is 600 feet lower than Kathmandu. The Bridge: Swiss designed, especially for bungy jumping with a 4x safety factor, the bridge has a loading factor of 41,500kg or 4.5 tones. And those are Swiss measurements!

Gonna go to the bathroom before this one………..

Camen