Kathmandu: Day 2

Today was 100 million times better than yesterday. After breakfast at the hotel I walked to Durbar Square and found it easily thanks to my new strategy of asking a stranger on the street anytime I am unsure of the direction I should be headed in. The Nepali people are incredibly nice and thanks go them, my day was far better. I paid for a guide at Durbar Square so I would know what I was looking at. He was very kind and he talked so much that I don't remember much of what he said. I only have iPhone photos because the skies were threatening rain and I was wary of carrying my camera around.

I did get to see the current kumari which is a pre-pubescent girl that is seen as the host for the goddess Durga (basically she is treated as a goddess). The kumari is selected at age 2 and continues to act as kumari until she has her first period. Then they select a new one. The kumari is not allowed to touch the earth so she is carried everywhere in a little covered chariot-type thing whenever she leaves her home. Interesting fact: It is considered bad luck to marry a former kumari. Photographs of her are only permitted during the festival in September, so I found one on the internet.

Where the Kumari lives

After Durbar Square I returned to the hotel for lunch and some more work. Later I walked to the Monkey Temple (a 45 minute walk, a quarter of which is up steep stairs that are angled down so you feel as if you will fall backwards if you don't hold on to the handrail!). I got to see a different section of Kathmandu (though much, much dirtier). It was a very cool thing to experience. Monkeys climb the stairs and swing in the trees beside you all the way up and hang around at the top. There were many tourists at the top as well as many natives walking clockwise around the temple in prayer. And at the top are stunning views of Kathmandu.

Luckily, it never rained though the skies were threatening all day. Many of the businesses were on strike (including taxi drivers) due to disagreements with the government so if it started pouring down rain, I would have had no option but to walk in it or duck into a cafe (if I was lucky enough to be near one) until it stopped. There was no way I was going to go to the Monkey Temple without my camera so I was very thankful that the clouds were kind to me.

I walked back and had dinner at a local cafe called Himalayan Java and had a delicious cup of coffee and a sandwich with yak cheese! Delicious!