New Year's Day

At least for the Gurung people of Nepal, this is New Year's Day, so it's another holiday. Winter break for schools starts today.

The Street Festival in Pokhara continues. Last night we heard a free concert by a wonderful group, Kutumba. For a sample, look here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOiuNjnSIs8

Nepal is a mixed bag of old and new. We've liked Pokhara, but what we like is only a small part of the city. We saw some of the rest today when we took buses out to the lovely Begnas Lake. Much of Pokhara is a big city sprawl of stores and smog, very unlike the tourist area of Lakeside where we are. Paul is writing about our adventures at the lake.

In cities, Nepal seems fairly modern, but then there's news stories like the following that give a different side, about the hardships for child brides in Nepal:

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=82135

And as long as I'm posting, here's an article about the energy crisis:

http://globalvoicesonline.org/2008/12/30/nepal-facing-energy-crisis/

We do love Nepal and are already planning our next trip, but the problems seem overwhelming sometimes.

KR