Day of Sightseeing (afternoon)

So this one is going to be a bit more slim on the pictures. I spent much less time taking photos and a bit more time just sitting and enjoying the sites. My first stop was Pashupatinath Hindu temple on the outskirts of Kathmandu. I spent a few bucks for a taxi and got dropped off at the base of the temple where there were dozens of small stands selling Hindu items. There were much fewer people coming up to me and hawking whatever they were selling; it was quite refreshing. As I reached the end of the line, I heard someone yell my name. What? There are probably 20 people in the country that know my name. It turns out it was Syunil from the morning. He and his friend had come over here to visit and see the sights. We stopped to get out of the heat in a tea shop. Why we drank hot tea I'm not sure. It was great to have company to talk to. It turns out that they were my age, despite me thinking they were around 4 years younger than I, and they thinking I was about 4 years older than I was.

After paying a quite high entrance fee, I walked around the site. The temple is along a holy river for the Hindu religion as it flows into the Ganges. Along the river there were burning piles that people were tending to. It turns out they were open air cremations. After the fire had burned down, the ashes would be washed away into the river and eventually into the Ganges. There were many other small shrines as well as many others trying to make a dollar or two. I got a good view of the temple (but turned out to be a sub-par picture) from higher up.


I walked through the woods and found, just like in the morning, a gathering of many monkeys. Lots of baby monkeys with moms being very protective.


I then continued on my walk through the suburbs of Kathmandu to Boudhanath, one of the largest and oldest Buddhist stupas. It was very impressive to say the least. There were two levels with people walking clockwise around on both.





After some sightseeing, I went up to a restaurant with a rooftop terrace so I could watch the sun set over the stupa. As the night got darker, lights lit up the sides of the stupa.