kathmandu six days before

Since the earthquake happened six days after we left Nepal I've been stumped with how to blog about our trip. All the witty things I had thought and funny stories that happened while we were there, seem only insignificant and raw in the face of the great horror that has happened to the people of Nepal. 

I am also completely obsessed with chronological order and I find it very hard for me to blog not in continuance with how things occurred. I debated skipping this trip completely but it left such an imprint upon us, before the earthquake and to a greater extent with the rising body count and tales of destruction, that to skip it seemed wrong. 

Instead here's some pictures I took on my phone of the beautiful places and people in the Kathmandu Valley we got to see. 

 On our first day in Kathmandu we spent the entire day walking around. We went deep into the city, beyond the tourists shops and through the markets of the locals. Kathmandu was like no place we had been before. The poverty was rampant. After I got home I read that it was the 19th poorest country in the world and the poorest country in South East Asia.

 The second day we rented a motorcycle and drove out to Bhaktapur and Nagorkat and around the Kathmandu valley. We were repeatedly reminded that we were not born tough enough to be Nepali as we saw people walking by with huge loads, strapped across their forehead.

 Bhaktapur was the largest of the three kingdoms in the Kathmandu Valley and was the capital of Nepal during the 15th century. It is a UNESCO heritage site for it's temples, woodwork and rich culture.

We loved this city. It was almost completely destroyed. This article has stunning before and after pictures of the centuries old places we visited that no longer exist.

 The woodwork was all throughout the old town and was very impressive.

 We saw many young girls drawing water from this well, probably centuries old and carrying it to their homes.

 These berries were for sell all over, they were covered in a salt/sugar mixture.

 There was a festival that day were two groups of people lined up on either side of this giant carriage, and tried to pull it to their side of the square.

 We ate lunch at this neat hotel in Nagorkat.

 I took about a hundred pictures of the Kathmandu Valley. The terraces and farming were very impressive.

I've seen soccer games all over the world, from the posh fields of Hyde Park to underneath the overpasses in Yangon, there's one that goes on down the street from me in a vacant lot next to a shanty town of construction workers, but I think this one on the top of a terrace is one of my favorites, bonus if you can spot the cows. 

Two women and a baby working in the rice fields.

I couldn't think of a clever ending. Just that earthquakes are sad and Nepal could use your help and your prayers.