Like I said in an earlier blog, I spent over a day on buses getting to Kathmandu. A long trip, but well worth the time as I really think Kathmandu is one of my favorite cities I have visited. The day following my arrival, I wandered around the tourist area I was staying in. I bought a guide book and took the walking tour to Kathmandu's Durbar square (Durbar means royal court). It was a pleasant day and I really enjoyed walking around the city.
Because I liked walking around the city so much, the next day I decided to walk to an eastern suburb of the city to see the most important Hindu temple in Kathmandu, called Pashupatinath. After that, I walked northeast to Bodnath, a Buddhist stupa linked to Tibetan Buddhism. There, I had a nice lunch at a vegan cafe; I sat on the roof of the cafe and had a wonderful view of the stupa. (There is a picture of the stupa below.)
The following day, in the morning, I walked to another Buddhist stupa, Swayanbhunath. It was a lot closer than Bodnath, but a lot harder of a walk because the trip was all uphill from where I was staying and then once I arrived at the stupa, I had to climb 333 stairs to get to the top. There is a picture of this stupa below, if you look hard, you can see me in the lower right corner. As you can see, both of the stupas have eyes painted on them and prayer flags hanging from them. The eyes are symbolic of god's all-seeing perspective. There is no nose between the eyes but rather a representation of the number one in the Nepali alphabet, signifying that the single way to enlightenment is through the Buddhist path. Above each pair of eyes is another eye, the third eye, signifying the wisdom of looking within. No ears are shown because it is said the Buddha is not interested in hearing prayers in praise of him.
After returning to the area I was staying, I was feeling like I still wanted to explore Kathmandu more, so I walked south to Patan, the second biggest city in the Kathmandu valley. There I explored Patan's Durbar Square (see picture below) and wandered around the city. Perhaps the highlight of the trip was the steamed veggie momos (Tibetan dumplings) that I bought from a lady on the street, they were delicious....
As I was walking back to my hotel, I ran into these lovely girls. They were dressed for a school performance and agreed to let me take a picture of them. Aren't they lovely?
My last day in Kathmandu, I spent more time wandering around the city. Because there was a strike called that day (in protest of something regarding the government, but I am not really sure what....), the streets were empty of cars, which was very nice. However, no one had school or work, so many started celebrating Holi early. This meant that I spent a lot of my time dodging children's water balloons and I returned to my hotel thoroughly soaked.
One of the things that I really liked about Kathmandu was the way in which very ancient temples, statues, and monuments were incorporated into the city. The picture below shows how a clothing seller had set up his shop on the front steps of a very old Hindu temple and the temple was in the middle of newer apartment buildings. It was really quite pleasant, because more often than not, when I turned a corner, I was met with an elaborate mixture of the past and the present....
The next day I took the bus to Pokhara. The ride was about 7 hours and the trip was quite beautiful through some mountains. Pokhara is a beautiful small city located on a lake. A picture of me on the lake is below. I was hoping to do some walking through the hills, but unfortunately, it was quite rainy in Pokhara and this put a damper on how much walking was possible.
However, on my second day, it did not rain in the morning, so I walked into the hills to see some of the area. Below are two pictures from my hike. (I am in the second, with a lady I met from Holland. One of the really nice things about Nepal , in general, was that there were a lot of single travellers who had interesting stories and it was relatively easy to find someone to take a walk with or have dinner with.)
In the pictures above, you can see that the hills have a thick layer of clouds over them. In Pokhara, early in the morning, and before the clouds blow in, it is possible to see the snow-capped peaks of the Himalayas. Pictures of the Annapurna range are below. The mountains really took my breath away, they were so beautiful.
After Pokhara, I returned home to Lucknow in time for Holi celebrations (as I described in my last blog). My trip to Nepal was a super wonderful. I loved the people that I met in Nepal, found the country to be very pleasant and welcoming and I really hope that I get the chance to visit again (and maybe take a long trek in those snow-capped mountains!).
No comments:
Post a Comment