Day 118 - Swoyambhunath and The Kumari

I woke up this morning at 7am to a rat crawling on top of my body. Now I know how I would react to a situation like this, and no, I would not scream like a girl. I left the window open through the night to get some air flowing, and the rat managed to climb through the window on the fire escape. My bed was right next to the window, so the rat naturally crawled on the bed...and on top of me. When I woke, I quickly pushed the rat off me, and it ran back through the window, or at least I hoped it did. I searched the room to see if it was still there, but I think it was gone. Luckily, after I calmed down, I was able to go back to sleep. What a great first experience in a Nepalese guest house!

I met with Jonas and Rachel in the morning to head to the Swoyambhunath, which is another stupa also nicknamed the “monkey temple” because of the numerous monkeys that hang around the area. We climbed the steep steps to the top, and the stupa looked very similar to the stupa I saw at Boudhanath yesterday. Maybe this is what a typical Nepalese or Tibetan stupa looks like? We saw the whole of the Kathmandu Valley from the top, which provided panoramic views. I ended up running into a friend I made while traveling in Myanmar, Niels, from Holland, who just arrived in Kathmandu yesterday. We got in touch through facebook and planned on doing a trek in the Annapurna area together. Small world? We didn't even plan on meeting here, and I wonder if we would have bumped into each other even if we hadn't contacted each other through the internet.

The four of us walked around Thamel, which is the major backpacker/tourist area. There were numerous trekking shops scattered throughout the area, along with many different restaurants and Nepalese souvenir shops.

Afterwards, we headed back to Durbar Square to catch the festivities. We met up with Sophie, who was hosting another girl from the United States who just arrived as well. She was from Maine, and had just graduated from high school and was going to volunteer in Nepal for a while – such a rarity for an American to do that! We also met up with another Cser from Austria who I had kept in contact with over the past few months because we both planned on being in Nepal around the same time. Funny how I was alone in India less than a week ago, and now I'm in the company of some great people from all over the world.

We sat on top of one of the temples to watch the Indra Jatra festival, which seemed very unorganized. We must've waited for about 2 hours before the Kumari showed up in a wheeled cart. She was whisked through the city so everyone could see her. It wasn't much of a festival in the end, but more of a showcase of the little girl.

Niels and I decided that we would head to the city of Pokhara tomorrow to plan our trek in the Annapurna area. We would hike for around 12-days to the Annapurna Base Camp, which would be at its highest around 4,100 ft. The weather is perfect right now to trek, and it is a couple weeks before the real trekking season starts, and when more tourists will come.

Swoyambhunath

Touristy Thamel

A Tiny Glimpse of the Kumari in the Wheeled Cart

Day 117 - Hanuman-dhoka Durbar Sq and Boudhanath

Sophie has many different Couchsurfers' belongings at her home, and people come and go at random times, usually when they start a trek and also before they leave the country. They leave the things that are unneccessary for a trek with Sophie. I think it's so great how open she is with her home, to be so trusting of everyone. If only the rest of the world was this way.

When I arrived back at her place last night, a German couple, Rachel and Jonas, came back from their 5-day trek in the Annapura trekking area. I ended up tagging along with them today to sightsee in Kathmandu, saving on taxi fare to the different places we visited.

The first place we visited was the Hanuman-dhoka Durbar Square in Bantapur. It is a UNESCO world heritage site and is a concentrated area of both Hindu and Buddhist temples. One of the more interesting structures in the area is the Kumari-ghar, which is the home of the 'kumari' or living goddess who is considered to be the incarnation of the goddess Taleju. The little girl has spent her whole live pretty much imprisoned, only being shown to the public twice a year. We came at a good time because tomorrow is a celebration, and one of the days that the Kumari would be shown. The festival is called Indra Jatra and it marks the end of monsoon season. There are activists that believe it is child abuse, to keep the Kumari locked up and unable to have her own genuine childhood, or even a life of her own because everyone looks to her as a goddess. I think the different lamas in Tibetan culture also end up having their lives chosen for them, but I wonder how much freedom they have in their lives compared to this little girl...

Afterwards, I headed to the Boudhanath, which is a huge stupa in Bouda, an area with many Tibetans. The stupa was in the center of a touristy Tibetan-inspired area, where many people visited, walked around the stupa, and spun prayer wheels. I walked around the stupa three times, and noticed the way the people prayed to the stupa. They had wooden boards on the floor, and when they prostrated, they placed pieces of cloth under their hands to slide forward until they were fully lying down towards the stupa.

At the end of the night, I headed back to Durbar Square to check into a room there, since I would already be there for the festival tomorrow and rooms were so cheap. It would have been cheaper to stay there than to get a taxi from Sophie's place the next day. For dinner, Jonas and Rachel joined me at a local Indian restaurant, where I tried the dal bhat dish, which is very popular in Nepal. It consisted of rice, lentil soup, some curry, and some vegetables. I ate with my hands the way the locals did, and I think it pleased the restaruant workers. Good to know I was doing something right!

Boudhanath

Hanuman-dhoka Durbar Sq

Dal Bhat