Unfortunately, the day started off with a lack of sleep. Woke up after 1.5 hours of sleep and could not go back to sleep.

I shared a table with 2 other trekkers and one member of the climbing team. The climber was back for her 3rd attempt on the mountain; that takes a HUGE financial and personal commitment.

At 0900 we took a group tour of the city, focusing on visiting 2 temples. This bus ride took me further through the city than I had been to date. As chaotic as the traffic feels, I am absolutely amazed I haven’t seen any traffic accidents.  Lots and lots of motorcycles and scooters; shops selling bikes and gear (helmets, etc) are everywhere. As you can imagine, the streets are not very clean by western standards, but everyone here seems to be well accustomed to it.

We finally arrived at the first stop, the Pashupatinath Temple (Hindu Temple). Burial (cremation) services are performed here. Non Hindu are not allowed on the side of the Temple where services are performed, but are allowed to observe from the grounds on the other side of the river from which the ashes are released. You get quite the olfactory experience (assualt). Animals are allowed to roam free and other trash decomposition smells are abound as well.

It is a little unnerving for me to stand and observe cremations across the river; burial are normally a private affair in my culture; having tourists/strangers observing and taking photographs of the ceremony would be offensive and unnerving. On one of the burning woodpiles you could clearly see feet hanging out. We were also told the cremations being started in the morning were for people who had passed over the night or in the early morning; a very quick turnaround. There were several wood fires running for cremations and 3 more queued up with bodies in orange bags on them. Our guide (a Hindu married to a Buddhist) explained thier funerals were always very peaceful, no sorrow or crying/etc.  There was a separate section for cremation of officials or other people of significance. The guide also said in recent years the Temple had added an electrical crematorium. We toured other portions of the grounds with statues and monuments; quite pretty once you looked past the level of dirtiness on the path in and out.

After a 30 minute ride (and passing by the US Embassy), we arrived at the Buddhist Svayambhu Mahachaitya Temple. We were allowed on the grounds here. At the entrance there was a pool with a statue with a bowl at its feet that you tried to toss a coin into; the picture shows a lot of folks miss. These grounds were MUCH cleaner.

This was called the “monkey temple”, for a good reason. Once I have dependable internet, I’ll look up if that is what the real name means or if is merely a nickname. We had a long climber up to to top of the Temple, but it was worth it: you could view a lot of Kathmandu. There was one major, large shrine at the top with prayer wheels all around it, with various shops near the top of the Temple. Our tour guide demonstrated healing bowls in one shop; no chance of buying one as they were super heavy and would clearly put you over your baggage. The next stop was a place that sold religious canvases. We got a lengthy talk on how the canvases were created. The times spent on the canvases ranged from one week for a student to months for a master. The teenager giving the talk had either been privately educated or sent abroad; her English was better than a lot of folks back in the States.

We got back to hotel, and I was ready to grab a bite, get my gear together, and try to catch some Z’s.