Temple Crawl and Everest Flight

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Thursday, August 16, 2007 at 3:53pm

Namaste all!

I was so pleased to hear from my travelling coz yesterday, although I hear she is having a worse time than me in terms of hygeine probs... Kirst, am thinking of you lots and wishin u safe travels...

So this mornin I flew to Mount Everest... wow. The weather was really bad, so could only see 4 of the himilayas above the clouds, but then there is only really one that I wanted to see.. "I may not have climbed Everest, but I have touched it with my heart", as my cheesy certificate says!

Was hoping to go to Nawakot today, which apparently has amazing sunrise / sunset views over the mountains, but unfortunately am stranded in the valley for the time being. The political situation here is really bad, it has been bordering on civil war in recent years. There is an election coming up, and there were rumours today that there would be a protest by the notoriously violent Maoist party... There were two yesterday, and I had to wait to get out of the airport, because when these protests happen, all the roads in and out of Kathmandu are closed off. As a tourist I am safe, but it just wasn't worth risking trying to leave the valley just in case I could not get back in! (I am not informing my nerve-wracked parents of the troubles btw...)

So today I just wandered around Kathmandu valley- visited 5 different temple, 2 Buddist and 3 Hindu. The most amazing place I visited was called Pashpati- it is the most holy place in Nepal- and I watched people getting burnt there- seriously- it is tradition here to be publicly cremated in Pashpati, and then have your ashes thrown in the Bagmati river, where Nepalis go to bathe in order to be certain of reincarnation in the next life. The atmosphere was so peaceful and religious, and amongst the funeral parties watching the cremations, were hoards of monkeys! They are so cute, but fearless, so you cannot get too close, or they will attack you. One was carrying a little baby on its back.

So last nite met some really nice travellers in a bar, and we shared stories over vodka and mango, and aptly named Everest beer. One of the guys was from Colchester- wat are the odds eh? So I am meeting them again in a minute- it is nice to feel social again!

Take care all,

Jxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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