In Kathmandu Valley

Some other places we visited in the Kathmandu valley during our days off:

Kathmandu Durbar Square

Home to many hippies during the sixties and seventies, the only remains of this past period is a temple called the hippie temple. Our guide introduces us to the cult of the Kumari, the living child Goddess, chosen on physical attributes but also on her courage, for instance, she has to stay one night in a temple with 108 ox heads freshly slaughtered without showing any sign of fear…
photos Kathmandu

Thamel, its bars and souvenir shops draw all the tourists, but also street children. There is an interesting chapter in the new book “The street children of Nepal” on the relationship between children and tourists, a mutual attraction difficult to define. Street children in Thamel are almost impossible to attract to NGO’s as they earn so much money by begging that they don’t want to let go of the freedom and money flow… something to think about?

Pashupatinath, the most important hindu temple in Nepal where they burn the corpses on the river bank of the Bagmati, a part of the Ganges river in India. Once a person feels the end is near, he travels to the hospice on the side of the temple to die. The body is washed in the river, placed on a bed of dry wood for the family to light and watch burn to ashes. Everything is public, which can surprise us coming from a part of the world where the old and dead are dealt with in private.
photos Pashupati

Patan is one of the other past kingdoms in the Kathmandu valley. There is also a Durbar Square in the center of the city with temples and more temples… Our favourite spot is the garden situated on the backside of one of the palaces. Look at the sculptures on wood, they are so beautiful…
photos Patan

Bakhtapur, the other kingdom in the valley is known for its potteries. There is a square in Bakhtapur where thousands of pots dry in the sun. It is such a beautiful view. I could spend hours watching the potters make everyday life’s objects on their pottery wheels, others decorate them; others again check when they are dry and ready to be burned. There is a huge oven on the back of the square. 50 families share this oven where they burn their potteries during three to four days, feeding the fire with hay (and some garbage too). Bakhtapur is the third kingdom in the Kathmandu Valley and also has a Durbar square with many temples.
photos Bakhtapur

Swayambunath, also called monkey temple, is best visited at sunrise. Look how the light changes. We even see the snow-capped mountain tips in the far. And monkeys of course, many monkeys! It is one of my favourite places in Kathmandu. Look at how the light chnages over the stupa.
photos Swayambunath

Bodanath is the largest Stupa in the world. It has perfect proportions and the eyes looks at us from every side of the Stupa. They just cleaned it so the white stands out against the blue sky. You just want to walk around it again and again or do as we did, have a tea on top of one of the rooftop restaurants to admire the stupa from above. After having done that you might want to take a local bus (we are experts with local transportation now) to Gokarna Mahadev, a temple in the outskirts of Kathmandu, near a forest.  The temple has the footprint of Shiva on the ground and is surrounded by beautiful statues of Hindu Gods. Not so far from there and more importantly, a beautiful walk away, is Kapan, a renowned Buddhist monastery where we watch the sun go down. Oh no, how do we get home? We share a taxi with three women we met at the monastery, a mother, her daughter and her grandson and a Chinese lady, friend of her son who lives in China. Yes, six people do fit into one taxi!
photos Bodanath-Gokarna-Kapan