What did the cat man do?

We got to Kathmandu yesterday and got our visas and some rupees at the airport, then waded into the craziness of taxi drivers outside. We eventually got a taxi to the place we're staying, a guesthouse attached to a Buddhist monastery near Swoyambunath (the monkey temple). They advise guests to close all windows and doors, and not leave shoes or anything outside, or the monkeys might steal it!
Today we're going to see about trekking cards for the Annapurna circuit, and find out if we can get rupees out of one of the bank machines here. Lots to see!
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Bangkok

We got to Bangkok with no problems. We managed to sleep a bit on the plane, and even stretch out a bit with three seats each - the flight was pretty empty.
Now we have a long wait for a short flight to Kathmandu!
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Seoul

Made it through the longest flight. Next up is a flight to Bangkok!
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We're taking off!

We decided to leave the computer at home as we really want to get away from wifi hotspots as they are on the tourist trails and we're hoping to get more remote.  So I'm obviously already missing it because now I am using the phone. But remember no news is good news, and if we don't update for a while we've been successful or else I really went cold turkey.  or not

Back in the land of volcanos

We stayed at White Pass and observed a very nice dark sky despite the smoke from fires burning throughout Eastern Washington.  We were able to observe Jupiter and it's 4 moons and the Andromena Galaxy with our binoculars.  Truly spectacular to see something 2.5 billion light years away with the naked eye.  Also pondering us as we laid on the ground looking up that someday our solar system will be spared somehow when the Andromena Galaxy collides with our Milky Way Galaxy 4 billion years from now.  People get paid to figure that kinda of stuff out.

I'm going to take a copy of this picture to show people in Nepal our style of  mtns, 14,410 foot Mt Rainier.

Today's view of Mt St. Helens from a viewpoint about 8-10 miles from the volcano where the photo was taken below. 

The man who took this picture survived on May 18, 1980. He and the people he was with ran and drove like hell to survive.  57 other people perished in the eruption.  I didn't hear the eruption in Seattle, but my parents who were out on the Pacific Ocean north of Copallis heard the blast.

We're back in the land of volcanos.