Dalama Adventures Tale of two corporate types ditching their jobs and traveling the world for 14 months... check out all photos, blogs & interesting tid bits at http://www.dalama.net

Kathmandu is the worlds largest REI knock-off warehouse. You can get it all here; North Face, Mountain Hardware, Patagonia, etc. Bags, bikes, clothing, camping gear. We really didn't need to bring anything with us - it's all here and available at rock bottom prices. Everything looks good, but you know it's probably only going to last for a trek or two. It's tempting to deck ourselves out in a new sporty wardrobe and send it all back home afterwards. For only 5000 nepali rupees (npr) - that's less than $100 USD, we can get two North Face down sleeping bags that will keep us warm in negative 10 celsius. We easily spent the day perusing through shops, not just for some trekking essentials we needed, but for wood carvings, masks, Tibetan handicrafts, Indian cashmere rugs... And the list goes on. The tourist town here is called Thamel and it certainly caters to the western palate. There are a ton of little cafes and restaurants, most meals we've eaten with alcoholic beverages are under $10 USD for the two of us. We stopped in a local art gallery and got a whole lesson from the young college student working there, Deepen. He expanded our knowledge around art, Thangkas (tapestry and painting hanging art) in Buddhism and Hinduism. Our hotel was about a 10 minute walk to Thamel, and we got caught in the rain, that turned to big hail balls on the way home from dinner. We broke down and flagged a bike-rickshaw with a tarp covering to keep us from getting pelted.