Kathmandu

Kathmandu was a very intriguing with its mix of ancient temples, historical Buddhist and Hindu sites, and crowded alleyways and narrow streets filled with masses of people and day to day life. Sacred cows, buffalos, goats, an dogs are to be seen quite nearly everywhere, milling around eating grass and picking through garbage and at times holding up traffic. In contrast to these interesting sites of Kathmandu is the immense traffic and crowds, dust and pollution, and mounds of trash heaps with no apparent landfill destination. The rivers flowing through the outskirts of the city are tremendously polluted with piles of rubbish and runoff from sewage drainage. Often you can see families and kids out in the water, playing around as well as cleaning themselves off with soap. Surrounding the valley of Kathmandu are a range of small mountains beyond which lay lie the high himalayan peaks.

One important site that I visited in Kathmandu is the ancient Buddhist stupa of Swayam bhunath, commonly known as the 'Monkey Temple'. Here hordes of monkeys run amok through the trees, buildings, electrical lines, and grounds creating a nice backdrop for the mainly Tibetan Buddhist site. The site consists of a large hilltop with temple at the top. At the bottom circling the site are endless prayer wheels filling with Buddhist prayers and mantras that devotees and other folks walk by spinning, sending prayers into the world.
I walked up to this site one evening and kept walking into the countryside, observing the villages and people at work in the fields. It was a very peaceful scene with all the children constantly saying 'hello' and 'Namaste'. The kids seemed super friendly and happy running around and playing games with each other, in spite of the lack of any toys with the exception of some soccer balls and some bicycles here and there. Walking back in the twilight and impending darkness was quite surreal as I was a bit high up into the hills and able to get a great view down into the valley of Kathmandu. Electricity is also turned off on particular nights for hrs at a time saving power. As this occurs the people of the city and village light up candles and lanterns in the midst of the darkness. Traffic also gets very sparse as their are no street lights working to lighten up the streets. Makes it much less hazardous to get around. Also makes me appreciate the 24 hr electrical flow in the states as well as much of Thailand and how spoiled we are in the western world. Also no real sense of danger or crime, at least that I sensed or felt, that is so common in American big cities and elsewhere. People for the most part seem quite at peace in spite of their poverty and lack of toys. They rely more on each other and have a greater sense of interdependence. It seems like pretty much everyone knows each other on a block and the community is much more cohesive, working together in the fields and just being there for each other. Many times in America I have barely met or really spoken with my neighbors , as everyone is busy living their scattered lives and locked behind doors watching television.

Another very interesting site I visited was the important Hindu temple of Pashupatinath. It is included on the list of the world's Heritage Sites and is a centre for pilgrims and sadhus - holy men - from all over the subcontinent. Here corpses are prepared and burnt, then the ashes and remains shoveled into a rather polluted river that eventually runs into the Ganges much further south in India. It was a rather surreal site itself observing the preparations of the burning sites and corpses, then seeing all the smoke filling the air. I was allowed into the area set aside for lower caste members of society to be cremated and allowed to take some pictures. Further up the river in a prohibited area is the site where higher caste Hindus are cremated. Here is where the royal family which was massacred by one of its own was cremated back in 2001 after the tragic event. Running throughout the area are mobs of monkeys making lots of noise getting into various mischief, climbing up trees and blds and running on the electrical lines. Also cows walking around in the river right below which corpses are burnt and ashes dumped into the river.

Not too far from Pashupatinath is the site of Bodhnath, or Boudha, another huge Buddhist stupa and World Heritage Site and also a centre for a large and thriving Tibetan community. Here lies dozens of Buddhist monasteries and centers of learning. There were large crowds of people circling the immense Buddhist stupa, some on the ground very devoutly prostating themselves fully the entire way around the stupa. On the outskirts of the site were craftsmen creating and fashioning Buddhist artwork and crafts to be sold in the area.

The touts in the Thamel section of the city were quite relentless, consistently in your face trying to sell travel packages, rides on rickshaws, items from their shops, as well as drugs like ganga and hashish. It didn't help that it was off season and much less tourists than normal in the area. This just made me all the more a target for the touts, as there were fewer tourists to focus on and a greater need to make money to get by during the seasonal slump in the midst of the monsoon season. The city life and culture was much different than Thailand. Here the men are much more assertive and in your face, trying to be friendly and well as figure out ways they can make money off of you. It seems like if you get a Nepalese talking to you for more than 10 seconds at one of the heritage or tourist sites, they are asking for money in return for them having explained some history or significance of the area. It is a very poor country and economy and jobs are not in great abundance. Many like to take on the role of guide or friend to try and earn some rupees. The women for the most part are very shy and in the background, much more so than in Thailand. In Thailand the women are often quite vocal in trying to interest you in massage and other services as your moving along. The men in Thailand are much shyer and reserved, with the exception of the tuk tuk and taxi drivers.
It's also interesting watching the Nepalese people interacting with each other. They are very touchy feely with other, particularly men with their male friends and women with their female friends. While the culture is quite conservative with primarily Hindu values and gay behavior is not accepted, it is not uncommon to see two guys walking down the street holding hands or with their arms around each other. Same thing with girls and their friends.