Kathmandu to Nagarot

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Day 3 - 23rd September 2008

The day started with us visiting a Hindu Temple outside of Kathmandu, and this is the other main religion of Nepal. At the Pashupatinath temple, we could see into its courtyard where there is a golden bull, but as non-Hindus, were not allowed in. There was also a festival taking place where a "Holy Man" was blessing his followers, and there were tents set up for followers and worshipers to come and visit.

On a very morbid note, on the banks of the Bagmati river, cremations were taking place. There were a couple of funeral pyres burning, and a couple being cleared for the next ones. All they did was push all the ashes into the water, which further down people are washing in. There was even a body waiting on the side to go on. Even worse was the Holy Man dressed in black, which our Guide told us ATE human flesh from the cremations without anyone stopping him, simply because he was a holy man.

We then went to the temple Boudhanath, known as little Tibet, which appears from behind quite an ordinary street somewhat amazingly. Again we had the opportunity to observe the Buddist monks chanting and observe the vast numbers of prayer flags hanging which people add to all the time.

From here we went to another town called Bhaktaphur where we saw a number of other temples. We got caught in a rain storm, which lasted some time, and our Guide had to send for umbrellas to get us from our point of shelter with the local goat to the bus.

We continued our journey to Nagarot which is several thousand feet up a mountain. The road was "challenging' and at points we were quite glad it was going dark so we could not see the drop on either side. It's not just the severity of the road, but the lack of tarmac and frequency of potholes that is part of the challenge.

Once we reached our hotel, perched on the side of the mountain, we were able to relax. As with all of Nepal, electricity is rationed, and hotels run on generators if the power is off. The switch over came just as i was in the shower! At dinner we discussed the plans for the next day which involved getting up at 5.30am to watch the sunrise. We would only know if it was too cloudy when we got up!

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Photos

Holy Man
Cool Mustashe

Cremation
On the banks of the river