Swayambhunath Stupa (Temple), Kathmandu
As with all my trips, planning begins with research and there's no better place to start than the web. In surfing, I came across several travel blogs and websites that had conflicting information about the safety of travelling in Nepal - there were numerous reports of violence by Maoist rebels. Even the US State Department website had a travel advisory posted for Nepal. My heart sank with each bad "report". But I really wanted to go to Nepal so I felt compelled to get an "insider's" view of the security situation before deciding whether or not to cancel out.