Thursday, October 29th

We are staying at Pilgrims Guest House in The Thamel district of Kathmandu.  We have stayed here several times before so it feels like home in a way.  There is wifi but not always at a high speed.

This is the entrance into Pilgrims Guest House from the street.

When it is not raining we eat our breakfast in this lovely garden court yard.

We arrived on Wednesday afternoon and then in the evening Cathy and Tom Tosa from Michigan arrived.  While they caught up on some sleep we were roaming the streets in the drizzle.  What follows are some photos from our morning walk.

A family of ducks who live in the city not far from the hotel!  They were taking advantage of the rain and standing water.

Here is one of the beautiful old buildings that We don't think will survive or be repaired, but we might be surprised.

This is known as a tank, it was lovely and we often walked by this spot, just about 100 meters from our guest house, to observe the people coming to fill water jugs and do their laundry as well as bathe.  When the earthquake hit in April this was damaged and a hotel at one side of it collapsed into it.

 We think this might be the freshest chicken in town!  Seems like one could be slaughtered right here for you.

In the afternoon after Cathy and Tom were up and about we all headed to the Answer office.  Here is Earle Canfield the founder of ANSWER by the sign on the wall.

Here is ThuHa Vuong, a dentist from Seattle, who came to give ANSWER students a free dental checkup and was also removing plaque as well pulling teeth that needed it.  She is donating a week of her time to these students.  Pretty neat if we don't say so.

This is, however, Marty's favorite photo of the day.  There she sits in the doorway of her store...the Fashion House.

This is a very common sight, women and men selling veggies right on the sidewalk.  Nearer to the Durbar the market expands to fill both sides of the narrow streets and you will find everything from shoes and children's clothing to every type of fruit and vegetable that is grown in this country.