I'm not lost- I'm on an adventure!: April 2015

This last post is all my photos from Kathmandu. Just before I started working on this post, Nepal was hit with a terrible 7.9 earthquake. Having seen the city first hand, it is very easy to imagine how an earthquake- especially of that magnitude- could easily cause massive amounts of damage.

I've wondered about the sites I saw and if they're still standing. I know that some of them are not. I saw an article on Facebook that showed a couple sites that had basically been leveled- one I had been to. I have also been thinking about how the last place I saw in Nepal, right before I was dropped off at the airport, was the crematoria. It's kinda creepy now, but I actually wondered at the time how it would work if there was a large scale natural disaster. There were only 10..... platforms? (I don't remember if they had a name) where they actually burn the bodies. The day we were there it seemed pretty busy so I guess that's why I wondered what they would do during a disaster if they had more bodies to burn. There's a whole ceremony involved (I'll go into that more later) and they are supposed to be burned within 24 hours of dying. My thoughts and prayers are with the people and families hurt by this quake. :(

On to Kathmandu- So I took another nice bus from Chitwan back to Kathmandu. There was a little mix up with getting picked up from the bus stop but luckily it all worked out. Luckily because I had a card from the hotel I was staying at and an eager taxi driver that was willing to call just to make sure no one was picking me up like they were supposed to. Again, there was another "cultural" show I was to go to that night that was part of the tour thing but I opted out of that one too. idk, I just wasn't in the mood I guess. I was tired and just wanted to chillax in my room. I also got another massage, which sounded better than a cultural show. It's not that I don't like cultural shows, it's just that when it's done for tourists... idk... not as cool.

I was flying out the following day but I had a tour of the city before leaving. I woke up early- mostly because I just do, but also because I wanted to take some photos around the neighborhood. The day I left Kathmandu for Pokhara I saw a lot of cool things on the way to the bus but I didn't have time to shoot them. The streets are very active in the morning. There were people sorting trash for recycling, people carrying things to stores/markets, women doing something with shrines, and just the general bustle of a city.

For the tour of the city I was grouped with a couple of girls who worked for the Canadian Embassy in Lebanon. There were 4 sites to see but I would only have time for 3 of them. The guide was going over what we would see: Swayambhunath Temple, aka Monkey Temple; Durbar Square, a UNESCO site that our guide described as Medieval Nepal and a site that I have seen has been seriously damaged by the quake;

some Buddhist temple, then they would drop me at the airport and they would go to the crematoria. I may have actually whimpered when the guide said that. He was like, you'd rather go to the crematoria? I said, yes. I've lived at a Buddhist temple but I've never seen a crematoria! So we switched the last two.

Monkey temple was super busy and just culturally interesting. It's nicknamed monkey temple because there are lots of monkeys on the mountain it's on. Durbar Square was beautiful and interesting as well. So sad to think some of those buildings collapsed. They had so much detail. Reminded me a lot of the temples in Korea. Pagoda's originated in Nepal apparently, according to our guide.

The crematoria was right next to the airport. Here's my basic understanding of it. The eldest son is the one who is in charge of mourning and does all the ritual stuff. There's something about earth, water, air, fire, and... I'm missing something, another element. There's a special washing ritual and then they carry the body to the... platform? where they burn it. They have to walk the body around three times and do something with water from the river walking around the body three times... or maybe it was once with the water, I don't remember now, they walk around the body with the fire three times and then start the fire in the mouth. After it burns (our guide said about three hours) they push the ash and everything into the river, which flows into the Ganges river. We were lucky and actually got to watch this whole ceremony take place. It was very interesting, and yes, it smelled pretty bad.

After that I got on the plane- business class for the first leg. That was awesome because I got to wait in the business lounge, which at an airport like Kathmandu, that made a big difference.

Overall the trip was great and I could totally see myself going back there. I keep going back and forth about climbing to Base Camp. Part of me really wants to and then part of me remembers the reality that it would be REALLY HARD. We shall see. :)

The rest stop along the way. You could actually see some people's heads above the wall.
Luckily I didn't need to go that bad.

Parts of Kathmandu

I'm not really sure what/where this was. Something we passed in Kathmandu.

The courtyard of the hotel I stayed at.

Sorting for recycling.

Giant holes in the middle of the road...

shrines everywhere

I didn't really get a good shot of this, but I saw several women carrying things like this.
Looks like it would totally put a kink in your neck.

wires....

shrines next to rubble

then fancy up kept shrines

Monkey temple

There was something about tossing a coin in the bowl here... good luck? probably

monkeys!

Medieval Nepal

I loved this guy sitting there reading

We asked our guide and he said there was nothing special or sacred about the water, this was just people lined up to get water from the neighborhood. He said it used to flow a lot more but now not much comes out.