September & October - UAE & Nepal

It has been a busy two months for us.  September was the holy month of Ramadan; the locals were fasting.  We were not fasting, we were not allowed to eat or drink during the day in public places.  This was no big deal for me as I am eating most meals at home.  It was a little tricky for Andy because there is only one office without windows in his building.  At the end of Ramadan comes the Eid celebration and most people take a holiday at that time.  We booked a last minute trip to Nepal with my friend Meghan and had a great time!

Below is a picture of the small grocery store by our house..

During Ramadan, the meal to break the fast each evening is called Iftar.  Andy set up a wonderful Iftar for all of the folks in his office.....
Parking in the city can be very tough and I thought a picture would do well to explain.  There do not seem to be any requirements for buildings to have parking allocated to them, so people just park wherever they can.
Here is a picture of one of the massive construction project underway in Abu Dhabi..
Our friends Suzy and Dave have a grill, so we went to our first UAE BBQ a few weeks ago...

Andy and I managed to sneak away to Nepal.  We took a turbo prop plane and flew through the Himalayas.  It was really amazing.  We basically flew through all of the peaks for an hour, did a u-turn around Everest and came back.  Below is Everest and Lohtse...

This shows how close our crazy pilot got us to the mountains..
I am not sure which 8,000 meter peak this is, but it was beautiful.
This is a local goat herder..
This is a picture of busy life in Kathmandu.  Most of the streets downtown are very crowded!
We were in Nepal during a festival week and so there were lots of celebrations in the public squares.  These folks are watching dancing from one of the temples..

This is a picture of the Kathmandu Valley taken from a hillside..

I took a bunch of pictures of monkeys before later hearing that many of them are rabid..
This is the hotel we stayed at in Kathmandu.  It is called Dwarikas and all of the buildings have original wood carved windows, pillars, doors etc from the 13th & 14th century.  The entire hotel has been restored and is really amazing..
Here is Andy inside one of the temples.  He is admiring some of the artwork while the monks and some locals prepare an offering..
Here we are at one of the shrines.  There are hundreds of Buddhist monks living around this shrine..
This is a local woman with her kids and animals in Kathmandu..
Here is a picture of one of the super high peaks at sunset..
We stayed at a really cool mountain resort in the Himalayan foothills for a couple of nights.  There were lots of local staying there and so Andy joined them for some singing and dancing..
This is also at the hotel in the mountains.  This is my friend Meghan who joined us for the trip.