Swayambunath and Haridwar

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So we have visited some old places and some new. Yesterday Swayambunath, which is the really famous stupa (Buddhist prayer mound) that appears on all the pictures that you have ever seen of Nepal. It is still quite a place and does not really seem to have changed. The walk there was great as well as we passed through really interesting streets, with no tourists and no tourist shops. We also ate the best samosas, well since leaving England actually.

Today we went to the 5th Dham, the most important pilgrimage site in Nepal, Pashupartinath, a truly amazing temple on ghats. There are many temples there and burning ghats, some for common people, there were a few pyres on the go, and one truly magnificent one for the Royal Family. I guess that the presidents of the new republic will get cremated there now. But the best part was further up the valley there are many caves where Sadhus and Hermits live.

We also visited the other great stupa of Kathmandu, Bodnath which has lost its magic, and the beautiful fields that surrounded it 20 years before.

An entry from before the Char Dahm follows

Travel Blogg

01-07-08 - Haridwar

I must say that this feels like old times, working on the laptop in a hotel room. This laptop has seen a few hotel rooms, a few as grubby as this one even. But then, as we were coming back from the ghats this morning we saw where the dobhi was being dried. I am sure it is really clean until it gets laid out on the side of the river right next to piles of rubbish, where pigs are scrabbling around in a welter of grubby plastic bags. Actually this computer has been in this very hotel before.

It feels as if we have been in India for ages. However we have been here just 3 days, one day less than anticipated, this was due to a missed connection at Schiphol. After having been looking forward to setting off from City Airport, before we even left the house, we had a phone call from KLM to say that our flight was cancelled. Ironically the call was obviously from a call centre somewhere in India. We were put on a flight at the same time but with VLM. This would all have been fine, but we had to check in our luggage, then pick it up in Amsterdam and go through immigration and customs, so we were too late to check in for the flight to Delhi.

Actually this was a bit of a result as they say. We stayed in the Crown Plaza for one night all meals provided, we were a sorry looking lot, the “stranded passengers” at the “stranded passengers buffet”. It was not hard to pick out fellow travellers to Delhi amongst the Dutch Business folk. Our luxurious sojourn was not yet over, we flew business class, fantastic, it was well worth a missed flight, we rarely travel in this way and it felt like a small holiday within a holiday, deserved I feel, as I look at the sheets on this bed.

Two days in Delhi, mad as ever, very humid, but the air seemed clear after a lot of rain. It felt as if we had just left, although it is 3 years since we were last there, likewise here in Haridwar, although it is so busy now, being high season for Pilgrims.

Tomorrow we leave for Yamunotri, the source of the Yamuna River, by private Ambassador Car. That actually means being a bit sick round the bends. For those of you reading this who had not been in an Ambassador, it is something like being in a boat. But tonight we will go to the Ganga Arti, the Fire Ceremony on the Ganga, it happens every night at dusk, wild and wonderful. Look out for images soon.

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Photos

Adrian in the Ganges
Adrian bravely dips his feet in the Ganges at the Ghats in Haridwar

Pilgrims
Pilgrims bath on the Ghats, this ghat will cleanse the sin of killing a cow