So, part of yesterday being national extortion day was a LARGE Hindu festival in Baspati. Perhaps I mentioned this. Perhaps not. Large. So that has a fairly personal meaning to all. Let us quantify this number. 200,000. LARGE. And it was also the only day of the year that you can smoke pot legally. My thought: Walking down to the festival after parking the motorbike (everyone here rides bikes. most about 100cc. horn honking is the national pasttime. don't let anyone tell you different. and there are really no lanes. two way road turns to one way to a death trap before you can scream.) I didn't really understand how many people would be there until we steeped out onto a main streeet and ALL I could see were people, left right forward. PEOPLE. I had thought of bringing my camera, but decided not to, it was a good to not. The only picture that I really would have wanted was the one showing the thousands of people. Then the oders started to hit me. Burning trash, which is not that uncommon here. We walked through the crowd, harder than every moshpit I have ever been in. The police seemed to be controling the people traffic in a most random manner. And quite violently. Rattan staffs were being broken on the ground, on people. Where ever they landed (ma- I didn't get hit. :D). Then once we were in the main gate the pot smell hit me. But there was something else that was mingling with the wafting smoke, it was wood, but not just wood. An oder that I recognized but knew that I had not smelled. Bodies. This temple is one of the locations where Hidus are creamated in a very public fashion. What an overwhelming sight, the people, the cremation. I felt like I was intruding into some else's very private life. Very hard. It was my western conception of burial and funeral rights. This is there way. You could and we did, walk down right near the creamation fires. REALLY GLAD that I didn't have my camera. I will never forget it. On to more cheerie news. The boys and I seem to be gettting along well. We all wrestled last night. The three of them vs. me. FUN fun fun. A quick word on food. So the hands is fine, the dal bhatt for dinner every night is getting okay, but WOW can they pack it away. Maamaa (uncle, whose 16) is Runt's size, but I watched him eat more rice than Seppo and Ei-nyung eat in a week in one sitting, in less than 10 minutes. DAMN. GOtta run, off to Thamel and Durbar today.