Monkeys, Marijuana, and Temples

May 3, 2011


This morning we met at 9 am after another wonderful buffet breakfast in the hotel and met with Cecile, Mann and Gocool.

I should explain people:

Gocool: Our tour guide/translator/knower of all that is Nepal

Cecile: The founder of Action Autonomie Nepal, our contact organization

Mann: The person who runs one of the houses for children that AAN built

Cecile told us her life story, and how she founded this organization. It was very interesting, and rather insipiring.

After that, we hopped in the bussette and hit the road. We drove about 20 min away, through Lalitpur and to Patan Durbar Square. Another gorgeous area with pagoda style buildings intricately designed. Complete with statues, ornate wood carvings, and a rich history. We went to the Patan Museum, which was inside one of these buildings. It has the traditional art of Nepal. Many carvings depicting the gods. Most of the pieces were cast bronzes and gilt copper work. We took a lot of pictures and saw many beautiful pieces of work. I believe, that nearly every piece of work involved religion to some degree.  For lunch we went to the museum restaurant and had a typical nepali meal. Rice, lentils, curried veg, and deliciousness. A girl could get used to this.

We noticed while eating lunch, and driving along the roads that there is free growing marijuana everywhere, like everywhere. There is so much of it that it is sometimes hard to see because the leaves are all growing on top of each other. There is one day a year that it is legal to smoke marijuana and that is a holy day. Also, many holy men smoke it to help reach their holy state.

Then, we were off to visit the holiest river in Kathmandu. This is where everyone of the Hindu religion is cremated after passing. On our way to the river, we passed through parts of town that are not to the same standards as the tourist areas. We saw your typical shacks created out of garbage lining the river. Gocool explained that people who had no land, lived along the rivers edge in these shacks. Unfortunately, this means that they are exposed to some of the dirtiest drinking water in Nepal, on top of their already unsanitary living conditions. We drove along Ring Rd., which is one of the larger roads in Kathmandu, but also drove along their 6 lane road that the Japanese (I think) government helped fund the building of.

We finally arrived at the parking lot of the holy river. Walking down to the river we were approached by many people again, wanting us to buy trinkets. We all refused and kept walking towards the river...and then....we saw.....MONKEYS!!!!! SOO MANY MOOOONKEYS!!!! It was beautiful. They're super cute, and don't appear dangerous. (Although, later I did see a monkey steal candy from a small child) I got lots of amazing photos of them. It was very exciting to finally get to see monkeys in their natural habitat. They are one of the holy animals. We also saw another holy animal, cows. They were chillin all over the place. Just hanging out, waiting for some food and someone to take their picture, I suppose. Later, we saw deer too!

The cremation process itself was incredible to witness. It's hard to describe, but I'll try. There is a murky river and it is surrounded on either side with high up walls and temples. Standing on the far shore looking across, there are about 8 platforms where cremations occur. The body must be fully burnt away and then the ashes are brushed into the river. But first, the clothes are removed and tossed into the river and the body is wrapped in a sheet. The oldest son of the family lights the platform. Then, it's covered with dry branches to help expediate the burning process. There are people all around, tourists, family, friends, holy men, and priests. The air is thick with smoke and the atmosphere is rather quiet. If you look further down the river, there are children collecting the dropped clothing and other useful items of garbage. Monkeys play throughout the surrounding trees and buildings while tourists snap photos. It was unlike any thing I had ever experienced before. And likeley to be unlike anything that I will experience in the future. It just seemed so amazing to know that you would be put to rest in the same spot as every relative and friend (assuming that they are all Hindus). We walked up a lot of stairs and through many smaller temples and buildings until we arrived back to our bus. Leaving the monkeys behind.

Next, and finally we were off to see the buddhist stupa in Bodhnath. It was really neat. You may only walk around the stupa (and all stupas) in a clockwise direction. And, for this one, you are supposed to walk around 3 times. As you walk around, you must spin the prayer wheels on the base of the building. By sprinning these prayer wheels you send these prayers to people and let god know you're in his house. There are many prayer flags attached between the base and the stupa's head. Inside, there are large prayer wheels. While we were there we saw many Tibetan monks. Mann was telling us, that this is one of the few places where 4 different relgions can practice together at the same time. Apparently, at night time it is a gorgeous area as it is lit up. It was very busy and there were people praying and spinning prayer wheels continually.

Just before we left a man who was talking on his cell phone walked straight up to me and put his phone up to my ear. I froze for a few moments. Then I said, "No, thank you?" And pushed the phone away. Odd. Gocool thought it was hilarious.

We got back to the hotel finally around 4:30 and had a debried of the trip so far with the group. Then, we went to dinner. Tina, Amanda, Sarah, and I ordered a bunch of different food and shared. My favourites were definitely the vegetable momos and the vegetable friend rice. Delicious!

Now, I have to go write a journal entry for Robin and Patti  due in 12 hours!!

Namaste