restful and fascinating day

New Year's Eve was amazing!!! After dinner, there were music and dance troupes walking up and down the street, stopping to do performances. Our favorite was a dance performance with people in full constumes dancing - it was amazing. There was a king or mythological figure wearing a long red gown, long red hair and a gold colored mask dancing with a queen figurtes, prince and princess figures and small figures who looked something like monkeys. At one point the main character was approached by a demonic looking figure in a dark blue costume. They had a wild dance/swordfight; the red wigged dude won, and everyone danced around the defeated demon. I thought at first this might have been part of the Ramayana, a classic Indian folktale which is sometimes presented as a long, long theatrical/dance piece, but someone told me it was a Nepalese folk tale.

The family who owns the hotel we're staying at invited us to sit around a woodfire with the. We wound up staying several hours, singing songe, and talking about life in Nepal and the US. We had a long and very interesting discussion with the owner's teenaged son and daughter. They are very fun, interesting and with it young folks; they're really aware of their country's problems and what they need to do with their lives. They asked lots of questions about the US. We also talked about music; they know Metallica, Nirvana and Bob Marley, but not the Beatles, Grateful Dead or other musicians we like. We did share a love for Bob Marley's music!

We needed a restful day today and hung out around town, drinking chai and reading. We spent a couple hours by the lake and a couple of college students from India started a conversation with us that lasted several hours, all about life in our countries and Nepal. Very interesting. It's funny, they liked the same bands the teenagers did, but the only Beatles song they knew was "Love Me Do". We also had some tea with a crafts merchant from Kashmir who has spent time collcting plants with a famous British botanist.

Dinner time. We think we'll have computer access in Chitwan. Happy New Year! PG