The Monkey Temple

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I went to the Monkey Temple on my first day in Nepal. It is on the top of a hill a short walk outside of Kathmandu. To get to the temple you have to go up over 300 stairs. It's torture. It starts of with a gradual assent but the last set of stairs is very steep. Once you get up there though, it's totally worth it. The views of the Kathmandu Valley are beautiful.

I was only at the temple a few minutes before I met Ari. He is an Australian medical student volunteering at a hospital here in Kathmandu. He actually just finished doing an elective at a children's hospital in Toronto. Apparently working at the hospital in Kathmandu is actually easier work. In Canada he worked six days a week so didn't really get a chance to do much else. The hospital he is working in here specializes in infectious diseases, and they give out hundreds of rabies shots per day.

Ari is also traveling alone and was eager to have someone take pictures of him infront the temple. He returned the favor so the pictures of me where kindly taken by him.

At the temple there is a monastery/school, and the young boys who go there were hilarious. They were all setting of stink bombs, and doing other not very monk-like things like talking on their cell phones and sneaking of to smoke cigarettes.

After seeing the temple, Ari and I took the lazy way back to Kathmandu and rode in a cab. At lunch that day Ari and I met Clare (from London, England). We have formed a kind of group which now also includes Jaime (from Dallas Texas) and Annie (from California, who also Volunteers at Ari's hospital). We all went back to the temple last night to see the views of the valley at sunset. Unfortunately the sun was blocked by clouds but the view was still breathtaking. At the temple a woman kept begging Ari for money so she could buy food for her sick baby. Ari, told the woman the baby look pretty healthy (except she had smeared black make-up under the babies eyes for effect). But the woman followed him for around ten minutes. There are always people asking for money or trying to get you to buy something but this woman was exceptionally persistant. We finally lost her when some other unlucky guy made the mistake of looking at her. She then started to follow this new guy with equal determination.

I have posted pictures from both visits to the temple. I also have photos from Dubar Square which Clare and I visited the same day as the Monkley Temple. They will be posted later however because uploading photos take so long. It's extremely frustrating and I can't bring myself to do anymore today. At least it only costs 75 cents an hour to use the internet!

Tonight I am meeting the group that I will be doing my trek with. I will be spending the next twenty days with them so I hope I like them! Ari, Clare and Jaime are also trekking in the Annapurna region at the same time (with different groups) so I am sure I will see them at some point.

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