Monks and Monkeys

After being in Canada for about 10 days I headed back to the other side of the world. This time, ending up in Kathmandu, Nepal via Los Angeles and Seoul, Korea.

Arriving in Nepal I had no idea what to expect, having little knowledge of the country and with still recovering from going back to Canada from Indonesia, and the busy 10 days I had in Alberta, I hadn't had much time to prepare for this trip.

But despite the fact that it was a little strange globe-hopping like I did (the fact that I can make it to the other side of the world in 2 days is amazing to me) I am so incredibly glad that I came here to Nepal and I think this trip will take a while to process and also be deeply impacting.

I arrived about 10 minutes before my friend I was meeting here, so I waited for her in the immigration line, very thankful to see a familiar face and someone I could speak Indo-glish with. After making it through the impossibly long immigration line and getting my visa, I was grateful to be at baggage claim, except for the fact that my bag was not there to meet me...super. But, this was an easy problem to solve, just filled out a form and went back to the airport the next day where my bag had just arrived. I was very glad that I had packed some toiletries and a change of clothes in my carry-on. So despite the fact that on the flight from L.A. to Seoul my sandal had broken so I was wearing a pair of expensive-too-small-airport flip-flops, it wasn't much of a bother that my bag came a day late.

The first day me and Llindsay wandered around, checking out the shops and little resturaunts, and getting completely lost as the streets here are unlike any other I've ever seen, directions don't make sense and maps are more like suggestions. Just last night we finally were able to make it for dinner and back to the hotel without getting lost. The food here is fantastic. After being in Canada for a while, being back in Asia I am kind of anti-western food, so I've been greatly enjoying the local cuisine of curries, momos (dumplings filled with spicy meat), lentil soups and of course...rice!

On Wednesday we went on a sight-seeing tour with another travelling girl from England. Because I can't pronounce the names of these places, I'll just tell you about them and then later I'll fill it in. We went to a stupa (like a Buddhist temple) up on a hill, we had to climb 350 steep steps to get to them, along with monks and monkeys. Stunning view, countless prayer flags, amazing.
Then we went to a Tibetan Refugee Camp. We watched beautiful women tireless weave beauutiful carpets, and then bought some for ourselves and to help support the camp. Then we went to Patan, an old, old city with many temples and old buildings and a museum.. with lots of old statues of Buddha and other Hindu gods were showcased, it was a good place to learn more about these faiths.

Next stop was the equivalent of Mecca, but for Hindus. There were many cremations being held at this place, as this is the place where Hindu people would most want to be cremated. There was also a huge temple there, which we were not allowed to enter as we're not Hindu. Here there were many beggers, many with leprosy, and Sadhus (holy men) who also rely on the generosity of others, and many people on pilgramages. Randomly there is a deer park here with a handful of deer and alot of monkeys. They were nice monleys (compared to the freaky ones in Bali)...until we were headed out and they started getting ready to attack us. My words to Lindsay "what do you do when a monkey attacks you?" my thoughts "what hospital should I go to to get rabies shots?". But, we hurried past them and they didn't attack, and we had a good laugh afterwards.

Then we went to another stupa, but this one is the highest in the world. We were allowed to enter the grounds here, and even walk around the bottom of it. Many people were walking around the stupa praying, there were monks crawling around it, and other people walking on their knees as they prayed their way around the stupa.

The next day we did the unbelievable. We got up early.
Shocking I know, me awake early in the morning, but theres more to the story. We woke up, went to the airport, got on a 20-seater plane with 10 other people and flew over the Himalayan Mountains.
I can't even describe about this experience. It was beautiful, moving and like a dream. We even got to go, one at a time, to the cockpit to see the pilot's view.

Some random things...
-As in India, cows are treated as gods here, and they take advantage of that by standing in the middle of the road in the midst of insane traffic.
-Rickshaws are fun ways to get around, just make sure the driver is strong enough to pull around your non-Nepali weight.
-When in Nepal, embrace your inner hippie...world peace and all that good stuff.
-When using a public computer at your hotel... be considerate and let other people use it... like I'm going to do now. I'll tell you more later, and when I can//post amazing pictures that will hopefully make all this make sense!
Headed to Tibet tomorrow. Wow.