Welcome to the second half of our spring break adventure to Nepal! (See part 1 here)
We really rolled with it for our last two days. While we ate breakfast in Pokhara (pre-flight delays, see part 1…) we phoned a cooking class for the afternoon. When we landed (4 hours late) the rain started. Our cooking teacher met us at our hostel, and we tried to wait out the rain, but it kept coming…
Walking to our cooking class, about 5 blocks away, in heavy rain. Dirt roads turned to muddy rivers.
The class was held in his house – up three flights of stairs in a cement apartment building.
The dining table at our cooking teacher’s house.
Around the kitchen preparing vegetable momos, or steamed dumplings.
We learned to stuff and fold the momos. Here are a few ready for steaming.
Patrick grinding up some spices to make a momo dipping sauce.
While we cooked inside, the rain kept pouring down outside.
The rain continued. The metal roof leaked, and we watched people brave shin-deep waters in the street.
There were dozens of pots on the floor catching drops from the leaky ceiling, and momma wiped up the floors with towels to keep things dry inside.
We cooked Dal Bhat, rice pudding, and “celebration bread” – or circular donuts. The shape was harder than it looks!
Class finished in time for a little evening downtime at the hotel. The next morning, our cooking host offered to take us on a tour of the local market to “make up for” the crazy rain the night before. We didn’t blame him for the weather, but it was a cool tour – temples, busy streets, and lots of food!
A beautiful stupa in the middle of Kathmandu. A place of prayer, but also meeting. We saw dozens of students studying and chatting, old people bartering goods or catching up, and generally lots of noise.
Patrick spinning the prayer wheel. You are supposed to chant a mantra while walking around it either once, 3, 7, 11, or 108 times.
In the oldest market in Kathmandu, which used to be part of the overland trade route. This woman sold flowers for use in daily offerings. So pretty!
A physics lab! Just off of the market square.
We learned about spices from our cooking host, and had a chance to buy some from the colorful sacks at the market.
After the tour ended, we continued on our own guide-book walking tour, starting with the central “Durbar Square”.
A beautiful statue in the square.
We climbed a cool temple to get a view over the square. It was a festival day (I guess that’s a fairly frequent occurrence) so there were lots of flower/food offerings and even some animal sacrifices.
From our viewpoint, we spotted a traditionally painted man and woman approaching the festival area. Beautiful!
Pigeons in the square.
We found a offering area near the square. There was a viewing area roped off “for foreigners” so we sat and watched the military band play while men prepared the offerings. Notice the circles made from buffalo and goat-blood.
We continued our walking tour through narrow and SO busy streets. The noise and sights and smells are completely overwhelming and hard to describe. Dust, car horns, scooters flying past, bicycles, walkers somehow not getting run over (just gently bumped), carts full of meat or produce, brightly colored prayer flags flapping overhead. We mostly just wandered and tried to take it in.
On our walking tour, we passed the famous “tooth” statue, where people nail coins to appease the god of healthy teeth.
Men playing dice on a street corner in Kathmandu.
A quiet lunch spot for some Indian food. Yum! My forehead got blessed for festival by a monk on the street (which then cost me 50c, of course).
In the afternoon, our group changed. Matt and Melissa had to fly back early, so Andrew, Melissa, Patrick and I were a foursome. We headed to the next town over, Bhaktapur, which is famous for beautiful architecture in their main square, which is closed to motor traffic, so you can walk safely and comfortably to take it in.
A cozy taxi ride to Bhaktapur.
The main square in Bhaktapur.
A statue of one of the guardian gods outside a gate in Bhaktapur. The red paint is special for today’s festival.
The Golden Gate, leading to the temple grounds in Bhaktapur. It’s largely considered to be the single greatest work of art in Nepalese history. Beautifully intricate carvings.
The main square was crowded with spectators today – they apparently were filming a movie scene. We watched the set up for a while.
A few of the windows in the Palace of 55 Windows. There really are 55, and they are all beautifully carved wood.
Anywhere there are points of tourist interests, there are dozens (hundreds?) of little shop-fronts selling all kinds of things. One of my favorite to look at were the Thangka paintings.
We got to talk with several painters of Buddhist paintings. Each has a meaning, and many are based off the sand mandalas the Dalai Lama. Beautiful work!
A store selling official Khukuri knives used by the famous Gourka fighters. These are a traditional knife still used today by Nepali soldiers. Andrew got to hold a 3-foot one used for the ceremonial sacrifice of the cows each year. Wow!
Bhaktapur is also famous for its “Pottery Square” – a place where potters have worked and fired clay items together for centuries.
A potter working at the wheel.
Melissa and Andrew next to the straw kilns in pottery square. These are single-use – they have to build new ones after each firing.
It was nearly dark, so we called it a day and headed back to Kathmandu for our last dinner (more dal bhat, of course!) and a good night’s sleep before the long journey home.
Our last morning in Kathmandu our hotel folks acted as a driver to take in a few last sites before our flight. Our stops of choice: the most famous stupa (temple) in Kathmandu, and the crematoria where have open cremations on the river.
The beautiful Boudha Stupa complete with paint and prayer flags and lots of people.
Selfie (or self-we!) at the Stupa!
The river and the platforms at the crematoria.
There are 10 platforms for commoners, and three for “nobility” or other important folks. When we were there, 7 of them were in use in stages from just building the wood-pile to mixing the final pile of ashes.
One of the holy men chanting around a burning pyre.
We spotted some fully-painted “wandering holy men”
Close-up – man in prayer.
This was not exactly a solemn place either. Picnicers, tourists, local kids playing in the river, and lots of city noise.
There were several temple type complexes around the crematoria, all with really cool architecture.
Patrick in the long corridor.
There was some entertaining wildlife too!
Patrick and monkeys!
Final Nepali lunch – delicious steamed momos!
Final view of the mountains from our flight away.
The photos end here, because the next 36 hours was a pretty miserable combo of long flights, longer delays, and lots of practice with waiting. We had a surprisingly comfortable night sleeping on benches in Shanghai airport, lots of pretty terrible airplane food, and managed to make it home at 10:30pm Sunday night. Just in time for a shower and a quick night of sleep before rolling back to work on Monday morning.
I’m not sure I would recommend the schedule, but I think it was worth it. 🙂
I am STILL working on getting all of our photos from China. Someday I will post photos and stories from that New Year’s adventure. I’m sure I’ll have other spring-time and pre-moving shenanigans to share. We’re working on selling our belongings (the “great purge” we’re calling it) and looking forward to simplifying our lives a bit when we move back to the states.
Lots of love to all you readers out there!