A week in Kathmandu with not so much to do...

Did you know getting a visa to visit India from Nepal requires three in-person appearances at the visa office over the course of a week?  And then you might not even get a visa, but I won't go into that.  So, I've been in Kathmandu all week with a lot of free time.  Even after living in Nepal for nearly a year and a half, I've hardly seen any of the tourist sights, so I figured this would be a good time to start.  Kathmandu valley is home to seven World Heritage sites and I made it to four of them.

Durbar Square

 There are three different Durbar Square World Heritage sites in Kathmandu.  This one is located in one of the busiest pedestrian areas (that taxis and rickshaws also regularly force their way through) of Kathmandu.  In addition to lots of really old temples and palaces, it is an area groups come to perform.  I sat on the steps of a temple for a while watching a school group act out some ridiculous drama.  It was a nice thing to see after spending so much time in a community that has never really had the time or opportunity to engage in any activity not related to survival or culture.

Swayambhu

 Also known as Monkey Temple, this was probably my favorite visit.  Located at the top of some impressive stairs amidst a lovely piece of wilderness in the center of Kathmandu, Swayambhu is a Buddhist stupa/temple complex overrun with tourists and monkeys.  After wandering around a bit, I settled down on a bench at the base of the hill below the stupa to do a bit of crocheting (because isn't that what everyone does while visiting some of the world's most impressive sites?) and a monkey came and sat next to me, eying my bag.  When it became obvious I wasn't going to share any food with him, he grabbed my bag and tried to run away with it.  I won that tog-of-war, but he didn't give up.  I sat down on a different bench and pulled my bag full of yarn balls out, thinking I was safe because I didn't have any food and he had already failed to get my bag from me.  Suddenly my yarn bag was ripped away from me and the monkey ran off with one of the balls.  Sitting on a nearby temple, he kept biting and unraveling it, trying to find the food that must be inside.  We almost got in a serious fight before I could get my yarn back and that would have been a bad thing because, as we were taught in one of our first weeks of training, monkeys bite and they don't brush their teeth.  Moral of the story-- definitely visit Swayambhu, but don't bring food and don't hold still too long if you're carrying a bag.  And if you get in a fight with a monkey, kick it rather than getting in its face.

Pashupati

 Thanks to a very informative tour I was tricked into taking, I know more about this site than the others.

Long ago, a king got married, but had no children.  So he got married again.  And again.  And again.  After the tenth wife also failed to produce a child, a priest told the king that he would conceive a child with his 11th wife if he built one temple for each wife dedicated to Lord Shiva (the god of creation and, if the engravings on his temples are any indication, the god of reproduction).  Miraculously, all 11 of his wives bore children afterwards.

Pashupati, or Golden Temple, one of the most sacred Hindu sites in Nepal and one of the few temples only Hindus are allowed to enter.

The sacred Bagmati River (meaning roughly "from the mouth of the tiger") runs through the center of Pashupati.  It is here that the local dead people are purified then cremated.  There are separate platforms for members of different casts.  Once cremation is complete, the ashes are scattered in the river.  They say you can see the smoke from people being cremated 24 hours a day.

Just outside of Pashupati is an ancient palace that has been converted into a state run old folks home for those individuals who's families can't (or wont) support them in their old age.  I suppose there are worse places to hang out all day, but I saw the same loneliness on their faces as you can see in any similar institution.

Bauddhanath

One of the world's largest stupas, surrounded by dozens of monetarists, and I still almost walked right past it.  Despite being located in a relatively small courtyard just off a busy city street, Buddhanath is a pleasantly peaceful spot.  Although the souvenir shops and beggars that surround any heavily visited spot in Nepal were present, there was an overall feel that this was a place people came to pay their devotion, rather than to just gawk at the pretty buildings.

Honey Harvest

Within the last year or two, my villagers have transitioned from honey hunting and other traditional bee keeping techniques into professional bee keepers.  Recently our local bee expert came up to help harvest the honey and let me be his personal assistant.  It was a lot of fun, except we were expected to eat some of the honey from each of the hives we harvested from.  I'm not a huge honey fan on the best of days and this experience didn't change that, but I did discover that I prefer honey still mixed with the comb.  Try it sometime if you get the chance.

The bee master (also boss of the local branch of Agriculture Development Bank and yoga instructor) smoking out the bees.

I didn't think the smoker worked so great, considering all the bees I had to brush off the combs as I prepared them for harvest and all the bodies I had to fish out of the honey, but apparently it worked OK after all.

Teaching a local woman how to harvest honey

Typically, you want the combs to hang straight in the frames.  Our species of bees, however, seems to like building on the diagonal.

Having to cut each frame out  was a sticky messy process that left the ground scattered with drops of honey and dead bees.

That's about 5kg of honey there.

Happy Holidays!

Happy Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Pus 15 (Gurung New Year)!  Why did we put all the major holidays together?  It makes for a crazy busy month or two.

This year for Thanksgiving, us volunteers met up in Pokhara, took over the kitchen of one of the hotels, and prepared a potluck dinner.

The pies (pumpkin and lemon meringue) were my favorite.

Amanda agrees.

 

For Christmas, five of us went on an adventure up to a small trekking village called Tato Pani (Hot Water) to celebrate.

The beginning of our long, cramped, bumpy bus ride.  That's why we're still smiling.

How can you have Christmas without a Christmas tree?  Isn't ours the most beautiful thing you've ever seen?

Hand-knit stockings next to a fake fire...  Too bad it didn't make the room any warmer.

Being away from home for Christmas is never fun, but we made up for it by decorating lavishly.

For some reason, the vegetarians in the group didn't seem to appreciate the cans of meat that came in their stockings.  Go figure.

Gingersnaps frosted with Nutella and decorated with M&M's.  Delicious, but maybe not the best thing to gorge on right before bed.

As you might guess from the name of the village, Tato Pani is home to some very hot water springs.  So hot you can't stay in more than a minute or two at a time.  It's the closest thing I've had to a hot bath in over a year.

Nothing beats spending Christmas at home with family, but spending it in a beautiful mountain village with friends (and hot water) was pretty nice.

I've never been a big New Years celebrator (I generally sleep through it actually), so I was happy to substitute it with Pus 15, the Gurung new years, which generally takes place a day or two before ours and doesn't involve staying up till midnight.  In fact, I think it's my favorite Nepali holiday. 

The day or two beforehand, villagers gather to clean up the cemetery and make offerings to their ancestors and deceased loved ones.

My favorite part is always the end when we make a feast out of the leftover offerings.

On Pus 15, all the Gurungs in the area met up for a program.  In addition to plenty of long speeches (after all, you can't have a proper program without those), there were games.

Nepali pinata for the men-- smashing a clay jar with a stick after walking blindfolded across a field is a bit more satisfying than hitting a cardboard figure, but it's just not the same without the candy.

Musical chairs for the women.

A pleasant day to sit in the sunshine with friends for everyone else.