There Were No Monkeys

It’s been two very hot days here in Kathmandu. I wish I knew the temps, but I’m sweating even when sitting and that happens at about 85-90 degrees…so that’s my estimate. Yesterday was spent exploring the city of Kathmandu. Like other capitals, it was crowded, polluted and filled with guides, tours and souvenir shops. What was unique was there were plenty of hiking, trekking and mountain climbing rental shops that were homes to great replicas of North Face, Columbia, Mountain Gear and other great brands!
It’s great to know that Stephanie (my travel companion) and I are similar when it comes to being tourists. We definitely enjoy meeting locals and people watching rather than participating in guided tours and walking through museums. So when we approached Darbar Square, we were able to stroll the galis (alleys) and enjoy all the temples and pigeons. Yes, I said pigeons. There are so many pigeons…it’s quite disturbing actually. I’m so paranoid that one will poop on my head that today when we felt raindrops on our hike, I was convinced I was pooped on. Steph reassured me that the only thing on my head was white hair (insert sad face here).
So Darbar Square is where the city’s kings were once crowned and now remains as the traditional heart of the city. The square dates back to the 17th and 18th centuries, but a lot of it was damaged in an earthquake in 1934 and was rebuilt, but not to original form. We visited many temples and my favorite, the dancing Shiva statue!
Stephanie and I returned to the hotel soon after to enjoy essential oil massages. Interestingly enough, there were no essential oils and I think I might have received a very “special” massage by my masseuse. But I try not to think too much into it!
TODAY… well it was AWESOME! We decided to visit the Shivapuri Nagarjun National Park that is home to fantastic flowers and even monkeys, bears and leopards (or so we were told). The teeny tiny taxi we took up to the entrance was entertaining. Being a bit nervous about this very empty national park, we asked the driver to take us up to Tarebhir, from which we would hike to the nunnery and back down. Not sure if that was the best decision. The drive uphill was frightening. The road narrow, the edge so near that just a little weight shift and the car and we would be gonners and with the car lacking any type of power or even breaks, we figured, this might be the way we were meant to go. However, when we arrived to our destination, we were pleasantly surprised. The views were outstanding. We hiked to the Tibetan Nunnery of Nagi Gumpa. There are about 100 nuns that reside there and even higher, is the Bodhnath Ka-Nying Sheldrup Ling Gompa that holds retreats for foreign students. And other than all the very interesting bugs and snakes (my biggest fear that I did not handle well today), there were NO monkeys.
Stephanie and I enjoyed our leisurely hike back, stopping for a cold soda at the end. So refreshing!
We also met our team leader today and some other volunteers…some of which have lost their luggage and are not as pleasant as I’m sure they would be if they had their things.
Overall, it was an awesome day!