Alright!   I’m here in Kathmandu!

On my own.   No tour.   No early morning wakeup calls.   No more jammed packed days.

Just me going at my pace doing my own thing – the way I’ve always traveled.

After being part of the Tibet tour for 7 days, I’ve decided to go really slow over the next 3 days here in Kathmandu.

My plan for me is to do something in the morning, take a break, and then do something in the afternoon.

The temperature also gets into the 30s here at midday so taking a break is kind during that time kind of makes sense plus it gives me time to refresh and recharge.

After dropping off my laundry and grabbing a nice breakfast at the gluten free place across the street, I was on my way to my morning adventure.

Monkey Temple

At 10am it was already 25c but it wasn’t like crazy hot as there’s virtually no humidity here and the entire city is shrouded in a layer of smog basically blocking the sun.

So, yes, I’m wearing shorts but it’s not a debilitating heat and there’s no chance of getting sunburned.

To that end, I decided to walk the 2km to the Swayambhunath Temple, affectionately called the Monkey Temple, for 30 minutes instead of taking a taxi there.

It also gave me a chance to wander through the bustling streets through different neighbourhoods and explore.

The temple is at the top of a hill and there were 365 steps looming in front of me.

And then I saw my first monkey.

And then another.

And, oh my God, it’s a baby monkey!

So many monkeys!!!

I was smiling from ear to ear.

Suddenly those 365 steps didn’t seem so daunting and I just took my time getting up there constantly stopping to snap more photos and videos of the little creatures.

And, unlike, LINKthe monkeys i saw in MalaysiaLINK, these little guys weren’t thieves.

Naturally from the minute I arrived I was also approached by person after person either offering me a tour or trying to sell me something but, hey, I’ve kind of gotten used to that while I travel.

A half hour later, after a leisurely climb, I finally arrived at the top, purchased my 200npr ($2) ticket to the grounds.

From here you have a gorgeous view of the city down below as it sits in a smoky haze.

Yes, the air quality is not that great here and when I look up the forecast on my phone it literally tells me the air quality is “very unhealthy”.

Atop is a collection of temples, prayer wheels, statues, shops and, of course, more monkeys.

What a worthwhile visit and definitely worth the effort to get up there.

I had originally planned to take a taxi back but I wasn’t as tired as I expected to be from the heat and the climbing.

So, I just found a different route back to my hotel and took a leisurely stroll back.

At one point I questioned whether I turned the wrong way and then I realized that, today, there was no wrong way.

It was okay to be lost.   I had all the time in the world and I was out here exploring the city.

A few minutes from my hostel I saw two men pushing a bike that was overflowing with bags up a hill and I decided to just join them and help them push it up the rest of the way.

I smiled to the other man who was surprised to see this white boy randomly joining him to help and, honestly, it was one of the most rewarding feelings I’ve had in a long time.

Of course I was huffing and puffing afterwards but, hey, I did my good deed for the day.

A relaxing afternoon

I arrived back to the hostel at 12:30 a sweaty mess and out of breath.

Nothing a little strip down in my room under a blasting fan wouldn’t cure.

Thank God for the private room is all I’m saying.

I had originally planned to go on a walking tour at 2:30 but decided to change it at the last minute to a totally different tour that started at only 5:00.

I really didn’t want to rush right back out there and just wanted to take my time this afternoon to reset.

Instead I was back out at 2:30 to get some lunch.

Ah yes, the classic Nepalese dish of chicken donair.

I kid of course but there’s a place here in Kathmandu that offers donairs wrapped in buckwheat for us celiacs and I just had to see what that was all about.

Sure enough, I was having my first wrapped donair is years and it was everything I remembered it to be.

I asked for no spice but, even still, it had quite a kick to it.

The same thing happened with my lunch yesterday so I’m starting to think that the baseline for “no spice” here in Nepal is a bit spicier than what I would consider it to be.

Small problems though, ya know.

An hour later I was back at the hostel and did the old strip down and relax routine again.

Controlled Chaos

My tour guide pushed the start time for the tour by 20 minutes so at just before 5:00 I booked a taxi through InDrive which is Nepal’s version of Uber.

The app told me what the make of the car was and the license plate but the Nepalese plates don’t have any numbers or letters I recognize so it was kind of a guessing game as to which white car was picking me up.

Eventually I hopped in my car and was on my way through the chaotic streets of Kathmandu.

I’ve seen this crazy traffic before in many cities during my travels but it still never fails to astound me how, as chaotic as it is, it all just flows together.

No traffic lights, cars merging every which way making up their own lanes, pedestrians and vehicles dancing around each other – pure controlled chaos.

Unlike Uber, I still had to pay the driver in cash and, I tell ya, after using Alipay everywhere in China and Tibet, it’s been weird going to the other side of the pendulum and having to use cash everywhere.

A cremation ceremony tour

I arrived at the Pashupatinath Temple just in time for the tour to start.

Along with Ganesh, our guide, there was myself and a couple from Budapest.

Ganesh has been doing this tour for 7 years and studies theology focusing on Hinduism and Buddhism.

The temple is right on the sacred Bagmati River where locals will come to cleanse and cremate their loved ones once they pass.

I won’t lie, it did feel a bit morbid to be walking around this sacred area snapping photos while families are literally here burning the bodies of their fathers, mothers, sons, and daughters.

I did ask Ganesh right at the start if people felt disrespected that tourists were here and if it was disrespectful for us to snap photos but he said everything was fine.

Still felt weird though and out of place.

So, over the next two hours we toured the area while Ganesh told us about Hinduism and the rituals of death and the afterlife.

It was unlike any tour I’d been on before as for the first hour we just stood across from families who were cremating their loved ones asking Ganesh all sorts of questions.

After an hour we finally moved to the other side where the bodies were cleansed before the cremation ritual.

Thankfully there were none here at this time and, instead, there were hundreds of people waiting for a daily ceremony to happen after sunset.

There was also a white building on the side of the lake that Ganesh told us was a hospice for people who are on death’s door.

We walked a bit around the grounds and came upon a group of priests all dressed in their traditional garb.

For an offering, we could sit with them, have them bless us, and take photos.

I was low on funds but Ganesh offered to lend me 1000npr ($10) as a donation.

So, I climbed the steps, got blessed complete with a red dot on my forehead, and posed for photos.

Yup, this pale white boy got blessed in this holy area of Kathmandu.

Throughout the tour my planned tip to Ganesh kept going up.

At first I was going to tip him 1000npr ($10) and then 2000.

After giving the gurus 1000 then I felt like it was unfair to only give Ganesh 2000 so it went up to 3000.

Then he shared with us the reason he was running late today – he had dental surgery today.

Four years ago he was in a bad motorcycle accident and, along with other serious injuries, he lost all his teeth.

He’s been hiding his smile under a mask for the last four years and today was the first day he had teeth again.

So, the tip went up another 1000.

In total, I tipped him 4000npr ($40) which, while is much more than I usually tip for a free tour, I felt was well worth it as I really enjoyed and learned alot on this tour.

Speaking of which…

Things I learned

· 80% population in Nepal are Hindu

· The spirituality of Hinduism allows families to be more composed during death as they realize that this is not the end and the soul will go on and eventually reincarnate

· When babies are born they are given a paper from an astrologer and, years later at their death, it’s ritually torn up during the cremation ceremony

· The ceremony must happen within 24 hours, the sooner the better, or else the soul won’t be properly released

· The river here is used to cleanse bodies but there are also many ceremonies that take place here as well

· While the cleansing is quick, it takes about 3 hours for the cremation.

· Once the body has been fully cremated, the ashes are then dumped into the river because nothing can be kept behind or else the soul can’t escape

· For the ceremony, 300kg of firewood and a lot of ghee (clarified butter) is required.   Those who can’t afford it can get community support.

· After death, the sons have to wear white for a full whole year.

· Children under 5 aren’t cremated as they aren’t ready for transformation from Agni the God of fire and transformation.   Instead they are buried in the forest.

· There are 6 realms – the earth, the spirit world, heaven, hell, God’s world, and under the earth which is worse than hell with all the snakes and serpents.

· The only realm where reincarnation doesn’t take place is the God’s world which is what all Hindus aspire to achieve but few do.

· It takes 13 days for the soul to get from spirit world to reincarnation.

· During those 13 days the family can not be in public and all the men in the family must shave all the hair on their body so the soul can’t find and identify them and moves on instead.

· Burning is the way to release the five elements of the body into the five elements on the prayer flags – sky, wind, fire, water, earth.

After the tour

The tour ended just before 8pm and myself and the Hungarian couple shared a taxi back to our neighbourhood.

Their hotel was only a 10 minute walk from mine so we just took the taxi to their hotel and I walked the rest of the way.

Turns out their hotel was right next door to the donair place I went to earlier so I knew exactly where I was.

At 8:30 I went to the gluten free place right across the street from my hostel where I’ve now had a couple of meals including a scrumptious eggs benedict this morning.

For dinner it was a humongous Aussie burger complete with patty, cheese, bacon, mushrooms, sauteed onions and a fried egg on gluten free bread.

Yup, it was messy.   Yup, I loved it.

Now, before you get all in my face about having an eggs benedict, a donair, and a burger in Nepal where there are so many great authentic Nepalese dishes to be had, you should know that tomorrow I have a three hour food tour booked and I’m going to be overflowing in Neaplese goodies.

So, tomorrow it’s all about the food!

Can’t wait!