Nepal - a little bit up, a little bit down
This little story begins on my 49th birthday (a few years ago). We were in a hotel room in Kathmandu, Nepal where we had spent the last four days exploring this mad, dusty, busy, colourful city. Now I love mad, dusty, busy cities, so it was as good a place to celebrate a birthday as any. The idea to visit Nepal came about due to a bargain voucher - and I do love a good bargain. Exotic Nepal, dreams of prayer flags and temples and of course the Himalayas. The night before we had met our travel buddies, eleven people of all ages (yay, not the oldest) that we would be spending the next two weeks with.
Opening the curtains and flicking on the kettle, the sun was
just rising and the city was awakening. One of my first thoughts was that the next
birthday would be the big five zero. F#*K, where do the years go? I’ve never really given much thought to my age, I didn't feel
“old” and I'm pretty sure I didn't act my age. Age is just a number right? I'm beginning to think this is something that old people say.
A yoga session was the first “activity” on the agenda and I joined some of the others in our group for a bit of breathing and stretching. Balance has never been my forte, hence I’m crap at yoga and there was no way my stomach was ever going to be able to do the “rolling” that our instructor seemed to be effortlessly doing. My attempt was rather more like a spare tyre bouncing around between fits of the giggles. But never mind, may as well, limber up for the trek ahead and a bit of mindfulness never goes astray!
After breakfast, we set off for our tour of Kathmandu. Starting thirty minutes late was possibly a
sign for what lay ahead. Of the four places we were visiting, we’d already been
to two, so we were looking forward to our first stop, Pashupatinath Temple, one
place we hadn’t visited.
Our tour guide for the day was a smiling man (we think he
may have been sipping something slightly stronger than chai), who told endless
bad jokes and only stopped mid-sentence to answer his constantly ringing mobile.
The Pashupatinath
Temple is a large, sacred Hindu temple complex on the banks of the Bagmati River. It’s also a crematorium where the dead are
burned and pushed into the water.
It may seem a strange place to visit as cremations were taking place, but the complex is open to tourists and charges an
entrance fee. Not sure I'd be bathing and washing my clothes just a little way upstream, but hey.
After a short walk around, we were asked to wait at a spot
across the river where we could see several bodies in various stages of the
“cremation” process. A bit more walking around, our guide providing some info between the endless stream of bad jokes.
Standing on the bridge watching the body of an old lady being
prepared by her family was morbidly fascinating. They place a torch in the deceased's mouth and after some semi naked walking around the body, the torch is lit. Slightly uncomfortable witnessing peoples grief, rather
like intruders, but couldn’t look away.
Other areas around the complex were made up of different temples and structures and after what seemed like a long time in
the one place, we headed back to the bus. Yep, there was a souvenir shop on the way out.
From here we headed to the Great Stupa, known as Boudhanath. This is an awesome spot, but as we had already
visited, we were quiet happy to head back to the lovely Spanish restaurant
“Casita de Boudhanath” that we had found on our previous visit and watch the
colourful crowds while sipping a cold beer.
At the appointed time, we dutifully returned to the meet up spot and waited. And waited and waited. Waiting for over an hour in the hot afternoon sun was not really the way I had wanted to spend my birthday, but just as we were about to jump in a taxi, we spotted someone from our group. They hadn’t left us, we weren’t standing at the wrong gate - they had just had their own delays. After another 30 minutes rounding everyone up, we were on our way again.
Next stop was Lalitpur Metropolitan City, historically Patan, across from the Bagmati River. Like Kathmandu, Patan also has a gorgeous Durbar Square
full of temples, palaces and statues. A very quick visit to the Patan Museum
and the Golden Temple, but sadly we just didn’t spend enough time here. One of the downfalls of group tours and a day of delays.
Last stop was Swayambhunath, aka Monkey Temple. The complex consists of a large stupa at the top of a hill surrounded by various shrines and temples. Luckily we had visited a few days earlier and had time to wander and explore after climbing up the steep front steps before realising that there was an easier way up at the back. Sadly the cute monkeys that we had spent an hour watching diving into the monkey swimming pool, had decided that the pool was closed for the day. It is a beautiful place and the view over the city of Kathmandu as the sun went down was well worth the repeat visit.
On the bus on the way back to the hotel, we were at least two hours behind schedule. Tired and hungry, we headed out for a late birthday dinner to Third Eye, a fabulous Indian restaurant where we sat on cushions and had a feast. Great food and staff and a happy birthday to me! Certainly an eventful and unique day and not too many people would be able to say they had spent part of their day watching bodies being cremated.
Luckily, the rest of our tour went to plan and our guides
and porters were truly wonderful.
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