You may be wondering why the blog hasn't been updating recently. It's quite simple, really: Josh has been traveling. But he's back now, and he's ready to regale you with his exciting stories from a week spent in Nepal.
I had to get out of town, really. Mackenzie works all day Monday through Friday, and it gets kinda boring around here without her. So I flew by myself from Delhi to Kathmandu on Monday morning and back on Friday evening. I hung out with Anne and Bryan - friends of my sister's who are living in the Kathmandu area. I hadn't seen Anne and Bryan in years, but they nevertheless took the time to show me around Kathmandu and introduce me to Nepali culture.
The city of Kathmandu is in a big valley, which means there are gorgeous Himalayan mountain views in every direction.
Unfortunately, the mountains are sometimes hard to see, because Kathmandu is also one of the smoggiest cities in the world. It is apparently common knowledge here that every gas station in Nepal adulterates its gasoline with kerosene, which increases the sellable volume but makes the gas exhaust MUCH smoggier. Somebody call Captain Planet.
Nepal, unlike India, has a large Buddhist population. Buddhist temples are called stupas, and Buddhists like to build their stupas on top of big hills. Like, really big hills. I climbed all the way up to the top of Swayambuh temple in Kathmandu. There were a LOT of steps (only about half are pictured here) but the panoramic view from the top was amazing.
Nepal also has Hindus. We went to Pashupatinath, the holiest Shiva temple in the world, on the banks of the holy Bagmati river. Funerals take place in public here: bodies are wrapped in orange cloth (orange is a holy color!), their feet are dipped in the river, and then they are placed on funeral pyres and cremated. Being cremated at Pashupatinath is an honor: members of the Nepali royal family are cremated here in public after their death. I felt a little weird watching strangers' funerals from across the river, but Bryan assured me that this is totally normal here - and in fact a bunch of Nepalis were watching along with us. Some of them appeared to be couples on dates.
Even the monkeys come to watch the funerals - probably because people feed them.
Nepal has a lot of cows. And pigeons.
1 comment:
Please remove the photo of the stray dogs. Thanks.
Post a Comment