One morning, after we watched the sun rise with a bunch of chanting Buddhist monks, we were driving back to our hotel in Kathmandu and came across a Nepali wedding. These people had a parade going on like an hour after the sun rose. See the hats that the guys are wearing? They are called sola topees and they were not worn specially for the wedding but are very very common. I saw men of virtually all ages wearing them throughout Nepal. Young men did not have them on that much but it may be a function of their age group or that the young people in Nepal think it is not fashionable. I can tell you that I bought and wore a sola topee when I was in Nepal and that all through the country people (of ALL ages) were very happy about it. They would stop me in the street and say very encouraging things all the time. No kidding. It was kind of weird but also kind of neat. By the way, take a look at the woman in the last picture. The look on her face is great. She looks so confident, so not demure. Her attitude was kind of contagious and I could not help but give her a big smile back.
