Hotel Red Planet, Kathmandu (Nepal)

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I finally finished writting up the journal entries today - yay! I set off early this morning for Pashuptinath and the walking was easy with straight forward navigation. Just ignore the roadsigns because they’re wrong - trust your map! :) I don’t think I’d read enough about it before I got there. It is the holiest Hindu temple in Nepal and accordingly it was popular. Non-Hindus aren’t allowed in the main temple so I went to the river. The river is also holy and a lot of washing takes place here. The temple backs onto the river. As the temple is so holy it is the location of choice when cremating your loved ones. There were numerous pyres in the open on the Western bank of the river which was quite a solum sight. One of them was north of the footbridge which apparently is reserved for royalty only so I think they were breaking the rules there. I saw one body out in the open which was being prepared for cremation. River water was ladled over the clothed body and then it was wrapped in cloth. I didn’t see what happened then as I’d moved on. I watched all this from the terrace of stupas on the Eastern bank of the river - which is about the only place a non-Hindu can be. I also took a couple of photos of some sandus who had awesome painted patterns. There were a lot of monkeys there too.

You may also download “world-tour-2007-11-21.geojson” directly or view “world-tour-2007-11-21.geojson” on GitHub Gist (you may need to manually checkout the “main” branch).

I then walked to Bodhnath which was everything I expected it to be - and more. It was an amazing place and I enjoyed being there. The atmosphere was just so calm, happy and peaceful. Perhaps it was just because it was in such stark contrast to the funeral pyres of Pashuptinath. I walked around the stupa clockwise and then had tea on a rooftop restaurant overlooking the main stupa.

Afterwards I walked back to Thamel and I was in my room by 1300. By the end of the walking the pollution was making my nostrils sting so I was glad for the end.

I spent the rest of the day on the internet and copying up all my entries although I finished them today so this one went straight into the right book. Tomorrow I have to do a spot of shopping and then pack my bags. I’m going to pack them as if I’m not going to touch them until Sheffield - which seems like a very foreign idea at the minute.