Nepal: We're Definitely Not in the USA

For April 4th

Our last pre-trek day in Kathmandu arrived, and it technically was the first day of our paid tour.  Kidar came back to take us around to a number of sights in Kathmandu that we hadn’t yet visited (on purpose so we weren’t repeating).  Our first visit for the day was to the place that is known as the Monkey Temple.  It sits high above Kathmandu on a hill, and, well, there are monkeys all around it.  Rhesus Macaques (I had to look them up for sure).  After arriving we had to climb up some stairs to reach the large stupa on top and the monastery up there.  It was busy with tourists, locals, and even some monks up there praying.  There were prayer flags all over, and prayer wheels around the outer edges of the stupa.  At many of the Buddhist temples and later along the trail to Everest Base Camp, we saw a lot of prayer wheels.  They are cylinders that have the Buddhist mantra on them.  Often there are many in a row and as you walk past (going in a clockwise direction), you run your hands along them and spin them.  Some of them are smaller, about a foot tall, but we also saw some that were probably 6 feet tall.  

Monkey Temple

From the Monkey Temple we headed to a school in a poorer area of Kathmandu.  When Amy last visited Kathmandu in 2018, she visited the school because, coming from a family with many teachers in it, she likes to see how, what, and where students in other countries are studying.  Following that trip, she and another travel companion raised $1000 to help provide some extra funds for the school and students.  On this trip, the plan was to take the money and buy some goods that the school needed.  After meeting with the teachers and hearing from some of the students, we settled on what was most needed.  The money raised went to buying 250 packages of pens, 250 packages of pencils, 1000 notebooks, and some colored pencils.  The teachers helped pick out 65 students who could use a new school uniform, but whose families didn’t have enough money to purchase a new one.  We got one new uniform for each of those 65 students.  The science teacher had asked for some hands-on equipment to help teach his students better, so some money was used to purchase a microscope, slides, and some other useful objects for his classroom.  And lastly, because of damage to a water pipe during ongoing construction at the school, there is no potable water on the school grounds.  We provided water in large jugs (think the large Culligan jugs) for the remaining 5 weeks of their school year, so they didn’t have to pay to get water of their own.  Looking at those classrooms where there were no lights, no electricity, no air conditioning (and in the winter no heat), and a room of 40 students crammed together on benches, really made you realize how hard it can be to get an education in some places.  It is a place where it isn’t exactly uncommon in the poor areas of town for students to drop out because their families can no longer afford to have them in school and not working.  

This is the school we visited.  Students were in class when we arrived.  They are constructing some new buildings just off screen.

After our visit to the school, we headed to Boudhanath, the largest stupa in Nepal and the 2nd largest in the world.  A stupa is typically a hemispherical mound or structure used as a place of meditation and prayer in Buddhism.  This stupa is roughly 340 feet in diameter and 118 feet tall.  We walked about a third of the way around the stupa before ducking into a rooftop restaurant for lunch.  From there I was able to look down on the stupa while eating a lassi and momos (both absolutely delicious!).

After continuing all the way around the stupa, we headed back to the car to head to Pashupatinath.  This was where I most definitely got the feeling we weren’t in the US anymore.  Pashupatinath is where most Hindus in Nepal are brought to be cremated after they die.  It is a very public thing which is basically the complete opposite of funerals and cremation in the US.  Upon arrival to Pashupatinath, the bodies of the dead would be laid out (under cloth) near the river on a platform.  Final rites and prayers would be offered up according to Hindu tradition.  And then after that is completed, the body would be surrounded by hay and then lit on fire.  There were at least 3 bodies in the rites and prayers portion, and 2 burning while we were there.  It was a lot to take in.  People were just sitting there watching from across the banks; they didn’t even know the dead.  People were selling goods there.  It was all just a very unusual experience for me.

At Pashupatinath, this side was reserved for people of a higher caste. Those of a lower caste were cremated on the other side of the bridge.

After Pashupatinath, went to Kathmandu Durbar Square, the third of the Kathmandu Valley Durbar Squares.  Like the other 2 squares, this one was still going through reconstruction following the 2015 earthquake.  In fact, that very day, one of the temples was having its grand reopening, and we just missed the prime minister who had been there for the dedication, though we saw the military and police who had been providing security.  The Kathmandu Durbar Square had a somewhat unusual Western style government building in it.  It wouldn’t have looked out of place in Washington, DC near the Capitol.  

Little kids everywhere are the same...they like to run through flocks of birds. 
Look at all that luck right there!

There was one building in the Durbar Square that housed an unusual individual; a young girl known as the Kumari.  It is believed by the Buddhists that the Kumari is the living version of the goddess Durga.  A Kumari lives in this building in the Durbar Square from when she is selected around the age of 3 or 4 until she has her first period, at which point the goddess supposedly flees her body and then a new Kumari is selected.  During her life as the Kumari, she doesn’t leave the building except for about a dozen times a year, and when she does leave, her feet aren’t allowed to touch the ground.  Visitors can come into the courtyard of the building where she lives and throughout the day, she will appear from time to time in the window for a very brief period of time.  Those who see her are excited by the fact that they saw the living goddess. We caught a brief glimpse of her, and indeed, Kidar was thrilled at having seen the Kumari.

In the evening, after a traditional dinner, it was time to pack up our things.  Our bag was supposed to weigh no more than 10 kg and our packs no more than 5 kg (without water).  Trying to get everything down to just 10 kg proved rather difficult and some things got left behind.  In hindsight, I wish I hadn’t left some of the snacks behind, seeing as how they are something I was able to get down when I was having troubles eating later on while on the trail.