Arriving back to Kathmandu from Tibet felt like coming back home for a few days. We were greeted like the whole place knew us (which at that point I think they did!) and got a lovely room with a view of the mountains (through a dirty window.. it didn’t look that manky!!)
We were delighted to be back and within an hour our bathroom resembled a Chinese laundry – some washing had to be done! On a separate note I was feeling a lot better.. starving the illness seemed to have worked and although I missed an opportunity for a yak burger in Tibet I was feeling normal.. in fact I was ready for a glass of wine!
After a relaxing evening we had a busy couple of days ahead of us to get through the last key sites to see before leaving Nepal. First on the list Sawayambhunath known as the monkey temple:
As soon as we arrived it was obvious where the nickname came from – the place was mobbed by monkeys.. they’re everywhere – running around your feet, jumping from statues to stupas and swinging from trees and prayer flags. The temple itself is up on a hill so,lots of steps to climb but there was a great view of prayer flags and plenty of prayer wheels for us to swing and statues of Buddha, Vishnu, Garuda etc to see.
Next a quick photo stop at some newly built Buddha statues in a park at the bottom of the hill. This wasn’t officially on our tour but I’d spotted a postcard of it and asked where it was…. never wanting to displease the guide told the driver to pull in and I had a chance to take a look. There were no tourists here but lots of locals coming to pray. A young boy waved to me and offered to take a picture.. happy days!
Next on the list the Bodhnath (or Boudha) Stupa – the biggest stupa in Asia. It’s really impressive to see the eyes gazing out and with the sun shining bright it was dazzling. You always walk clockwise around a stupa and ring the prayer wheels in a clockwise motion so off we went. This area was uncluttered (unlikely the monkey temple) so it was nice to walk around in the open space.
After a really nice lunch overlooking the Bodhnath stupa we headed for the last temple of the day – Pashupatinath. This is the Hindu temple where they have cremations on the side of the river Bagmati. (It allegedly runs into the Ganges). This was the most expensive temple to visit at approx $20 and most of it we could not enter as it’s for Hindus only. We did catch a glimpse of a giant gold bull through the entry way to one of the temples in the compound. Oddly enough there was no problem for us to visit the cremation gatts. There are cremations going on 24/7 and you can see them very easily as they take place outdoors. It was a very somber affair watching human bodies (initially only covered by a shroud) get covered with grass or rice stalks and set on fire. We watched a cremation from start to finish and honestly weren’t the better of witnessing it….. a drink was needed on return to the hotel.
That night we ended up having our best meal in Nepal at a restaurant we found on TripAdvisor called Rosemary Kitchen and Coffeeshop. It was in Thamel so that meant walking around small busy streets full of shops trying to find it but once we did we were delighted. The restaurant itself was cosy and well lit with a great menu and decent wine. We were happy out!
Next morning we had a 4.45am pick up with an hour drive up the mountains on another very bumpy road to get to Nagarkot for sunrise. It was worth it for the beautiful views of the Himalayas though… seeing the sun bounce of the top of the peaks as it rose was gorgeous.
After the sunrise we hiked through some small villages to what is one of the oldest temples in Nepal – Changu Narayan. With a mixture of Hindu and Buddhist shrines it is famous for its ancient carvings. It had a lot of damage in the earthquake but you could see a lot of restoration already done and more ongoing.
Next it was on to Bhaktapur and our third Durbar square. This one is apparently the oldest of all the three squares. It had a really nice feel to it walking around the little streets. It was reasonably quiet and calm to walk around, not crazy and chaotic as Kathmandu and although they were hit pretty bad by the earthquake it wasn’t half as dusty and dirty. There is still a lot of restoring and rebuilding being done.. the evidence of which was all around. The highlight was the 5 tier stupa in the centre of the square.
On our last day in Nepal there were a couple of things nagging me… firstly I realised after visiting Bodhnath stupa we hadn’t seen the large prayer wheel. Apparently it’s the biggest in Kathmandu (if not one of the biggest in the country) and to add insult to injury it’s on the front cover of the Lonely Planet guide that we had been carrying around our whole trip!! So after a quick chat with our “anything to make you happy” guide Ujewel he put me in a taxi to go go back in and see the prayer wheel. It was well worth it … Lokendra, our original guide that day, was waiting for me out front and brought me to see the prayer wheel. He took the photo mimicking the book cover and we were done!
The 2nd thing on my mind was the Patan Kumari.. apparently she saw visitors every day and she was in our neighbourhood so I really wanted to see her. So we set off to have a final lunch and spot of fair trade shopping and onwards to the Kumari house. I got my tika (blessing) and was happy out.. another job done and I was happy to say goodbye to Nepal!
odohertyelaine 