Kathmandu

We departed from Toronto at 10:35 pm on April 30^th, stopped in Istanbul for 5 hours for some Turkish delights, and carried on to Kathmandu where we arrived at 6:15 am on May 2^nd. Upon leaving the airport, it was quite obvious that we were no longer on the streets of Kingston.

We are staying a beautiful hotel called the Kathmandu Guest House, an urban oasis that gives us much-needed reprieve from the crowded, dusty streets of the Thamel district of Kathmandu. We spent the better part of recovering from the travel day and getting introduced to the characters that makes up our team.

We did a bit of sightseeing today and the devastation of the 2015 earthquake was very apparent in areas like Hauman-dhoka Durbar Square, where many temples and palace structures were destroyed or in some form of disrepair.

Whereas others, like the Swayambhunath (aka Monkey Temple) were seemed relatively unaffected.

We were warned ahead of time that making eye contact or getting too close to the monkeys could be perceived as a threat and could result in a bite. Given that I have no interest in getting a rabies shot in a Nepalese hospital, I kept my distance.

As far as the research is concerned (after all, that’s why we’re here) we began some of our baselines measures today, but a majority of measures (including the exercise portion) will be taken tomorrow (May 4^th).

More to follow!