Blogs from Pashupatinath Temple, Kathmandu, Nepal, Asia - page 2

Our plane from Beijing took us to Abu Dhabi. It meant over-nighting in the airport there which is a pretty big set up. It was our first time flying with Etihad. The food was excellent and the boys gave the in-flight entertainment a 10/10. Our morning flight to Kathmandu was detoured to Bangladesh due to bad weather. We re-fueled and were soon on our way back to Kathmandu. The Kathmandu Garden Hotel was very accommodating to the very late arrival of our plane and duly arrived to greet us. The taxis were similar to those in India with small boots and lots of roof space for luggage. I’m finding Kathmandu much less chaotic and slower-paced than India. The street samosa are in the excellent category. While I didn’t get to have a look around on our ... read more

Sunday 9th August I had originally intended to visit two major temples today (one Hindu and one Buddhist) but as I was up quite early and still feeling good after those two, after a short break I visited the third as well. After a lovely breakfast in the hotel roof garden, I took a taxi to Pashupatinath which is east of the city, near to the airport. This is the most important Hindu temple in Nepal and is also one of the most important temples in all Asia dedicated to Shiva. The temple complex straddles the Bagmati River, Nepal's holy river, and the site is as important to Nepalis as Varanasi on the Ganges is to Indians. Where the river flows through the temple site, Hundus come to bathe for ritual cleansing and also to cremate ... read more

Wat een dag! Het is nu kwart voor zeven ’s avonds en we zijn zojuist thuisgebracht door de taxi. Meteen een wierookstokje opgestoken om een wat prettigere geur te krijgen, weer een beetje de rust te hervinden, maar stiekem ook wel om alle goden te prijzen dat we vandaag heelhuids hebben overleefd… ;-) Vanochtend kwam Saligram ons ophalen voor siteseeing in Kathmandu. Geen idee wat ons te wachten stond en dat was misschien maar goed ook. Saligram had voor de hele dag een taxi voor ons geregeld. De chauffeur probeerde ons met ware doodsverachting zo snel mogelijk op de plek van bestemming te brengen. Niet dat dat hielp, want de meneer achter ons die het gewoon rustig aan deed kwam op precies hetzelfde tijdstip aan. Onze eerste bestemming was het complex van Pashupatinath. Van dit tempelcomplex ... read more

Everyone has one, in the past three years digital SLR cameras have gone mainstream. So noticeable on my travels are tourists with their Canons and Nikons, snapping away at anything and anyone. Do they think that owning a big camera makes them pro and free license to shoot indiscriminately? Case in point is the curly-haired man I encountered at Pashupatinath, Kathmandu. It's a holy site for Hindus, a place for pilgrimage and also an auspicious place to die. We tourists, and more than a few Nepalis go there to spectate. Armed with both a video camera and a digital SLR, the curly-haired man was happy as a pig in shit, filming and shooting everything in sight. He snapped the fake Sadhus (for a fee), dying people with their feet immersed in the holy Bagmati River, wailing ... read more

I last blogged, if that is the right word lying by the pool in Samode on my Blackberry, now I am in the Basement business centre of the Hotel in Kathmandu, slightly different. The last evening in Samode was pleasant if rather quieter than the previous one! We left the pool and packed and then went down to have a drink before the Dinner but quickly got together with the rest of the Group. There were 15 left and after we had consumed a very fine bottle of finest Russian Vodka produced by Roddy we went to the Hotel dining room and had the buffet, general chat and eventually got to bed around midnight. We discovered there had been some interesting going ons the night before and the last people had actually got to bed at ... read more