Start of work week...

Went to Bhaktapur yesterday to look at the old town and the temples and carvings. The craftsmanship is really amazing. However, i think the Lonely planet guide is dated because this town is getting much more touristy (not the untouched city as it's described to be) and it's really only in Durbar Square (very small area) where there are no vehicles, otherwise, you are still honked at and many many vehicles around (although not like Kathmandu). Getting back was quite an adventure, bad one because i was feeling very sick at this point because of all the pollution around and lack of sleep (the host family's dog was whining and barking all night, giving me only 3 hours of sleep ahhhh!!!).

Started "work" today to find out that there is a spinal injury conference going on the next 3 days. Thought I would join in and get to see differences between approaches. Interesting thoughts: mechanisms of injuries are usually due to falls (into wells), falling off poles/ladders (oftentimes, poorer people climb up to the electricity poles to steal electricity and then fall causing SCI), falls off overloaded buses, trains, cars. Couldn't really stay much longer because volunteer coordinator wanted us all back to our host families' home by noon because there are strikes and road blocks today. There were 3 bombings yesterday but I don't think we were around those areas. We'll be avoiding public buses for teh time being though and resort to taxis and walking.