Lights, music and a Tika, last days in Kathmandu

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One of the symptoms of traveling for a long time is that I am no longer hungry to explore, as you've probably noticed. I spent a week in Kathmandu since I came back from Pokhara (broken in the middle by my Langtang trek), and that's after spending 5 days here a month ago. It's almost as much as I've spent in Sydney, does it make sense?
In the beginning I almost didn't leave the 2 streets that form the center of the tourists' ghetto, Thamel. Why would I? There are excellent bakeries, great restaurants, cafes, bars, music, and there are some good movies in the TV in my room.
However, eventually I did bother to go a bit further, and I discovered that there's life beyond the "ghetto". Before I went trekking, when my sister was still here, we explored the shopping streets. I was looking for some cloth to make curtains in my future apartment. In fact what I bought is a saree but I think it will make great curtains... I wasn't surprised to find the usual cluster of narrow, colorful market streets, this is the East. Yet I was very surprised to find also a "relatively modern" shopping center, something like a shopping mall from the 70s, which reminded me of Allenbi or Hod passages in Tel-Aviv at their past glory days.
This week Nepal celebrated a very important Hindu festival, Tihar, a festival of lights. The streets were wonderfully lit in many colors and there were candles everywhere. Kids were singing in the streets (and getting money from the adults), and sometimes there were short music and dance shows in the streets. It's not a Buddhist festival, yet in its last day they do celebrate the Bhai Tika, in which the brothers get a tika from their younger sisters (in the Nepali wide sense of sister, that can be also a cousin and more). The tika is a colored powder put on the forehead, it’s a blessing for health and good luck. I was really lucky to be invited by my friend Rajku to join the ceremony at his home, with his family. In my 9 months of traveling in 5 countries I rarely had a chance to get so close to locals, I usually met just other travelers. I enjoyed learning about Nepali life. The tika ceremony was really touching. I apologize for not sharing the details and pictures but I assume it's a bit personal for the family. Afterwards we had a music show in their yard - this is a more grown up version of the kids singing in the streets. All in all it's been a great day.
Rajku lives in Boudha (Bodhnath), a nice suburb of Kathmandu, center of the Tibetan life here. On the festival day I was too busy to actually see it, so I summoned the remains of my sightseeing energy and went there again on Saturday - my last day in Kathmandu. The main stupa is simply stunning. Impressive in simplicity, lovely with all the colorful prayer flags around. The surrounding area is surprising, with beautiful monasteries and some nice apartment buildings, built rather spaciously, very different from the center of Kathmandu. I was actually wondering: could I live here?

I planned to celebrate my last evening with a good meal, get up late on Sunday and make my way lazily to the airport. But fate had other plans for me. At dinner I met Rob, 16 years in USA but a true Kiwi. We had a good dinner and he invited me to join him at dawn in the “monkey temple” (Swayambhunath). I already visited this place a month ago, and dawn sounded very early... But his descriptions of the religious activities at that time and my last chance for a Nepali sunrise convinced me. I got up at 5:30 and went there. Plenty of worshippers were there before us. They were walking around the stupa and singing. Some were doing their morning workout. It was fabulous. The sunrise was lovely. The Kathmandu valley is waking up to a new day, the day in which I start my journey home.

A 9-months-holiday is about to end...

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