November 5 – Exploring Kathmandu

Today we visited one of the main things on Cath’s bucket list -Boudhanath Stupa – the largest Buddhist shrine in Asia and a centre of Tibetan culture in Nepal.

The drive from our hotel to the Stupa took about 30 minutes. It is in the center of a mostly Tibetan community surrounded by shops, restaurants & monasteries.

We had breakfast on an upstairs outdoor patio restaurant overlooking the stupa and then were able to walk around the base of the stupa with crowds of tourists, monks & pilgrims. As we circled the stupa we spun many of the prayer wheels. Our guide told us that each spin of a prayer wheel is said to represent 108 repetitions of a mantra. It was a spectacular experience under a clear blue sky.

Next we drove to the medieval district called Bhaktapur which had fascinating temples and architecture, very narrow streets with no sidewalks and a continual of barrage of small scooters and motorcycles. Fortunately they drive fairly slowly but sure like to honk their horns!

The temple area had lots of people but no vehicles were allowed in the square.

From there we then went on to a women’s resource centre called Sisterhood of Survival, which was actually started in Nepal in 2008 by a Canadian woman through g-Adventures. It helps girls and women escape from sex trafficking and forced labour. It’s an appalling problem all over the world and Nepalese women are particularly vulnerable due to their poverty and very limited education.

As part of g-Adventures’ efforts to support the program they bring their tour groups for a fun workshop making momos – Nepalese dumplings – followed by a delicious lunch and presentation by staff about their work.

The reasons for this organization to exist are difficult to discuss but it’s a great program that is making a huge difference in women’s lives.

We are holding up well, getting somewhat adjusted to all the traffic, noise and pollution which are the most tiring aspects of our adventure so far.

Today is the start of the Tihar festival which is the Nepalese Diwali or festival of lights so lots of strings of lights are hung outside buildings. It goes for five days. Each day has a focus & today was the honouring of crows as divine messengers. Tomorrow it’s dogs so apparently the dogs will all have tikkas or red marks on placed on their heads and they will get extra food! There are stray dogs everywhere we go and they are in a little better shape than the ones we saw in India. Not sure what animals come next but brothers and sisters are the focus on the last day.

We are heading to Pokhara tomorrow at 7:00 am on the tour group’s bus which is just big enough for all 15 people plus the tour leader and an assistant driver who we think is an extra pair of eyes for the driver. It’s a 6-8 hour drive, depending upon ….. Maybe we should spin a few prayer wheels for our driver Naveen & his assistant Ram!

Cheers from Kathmandu!
Wally & Cath