There are some interesting places to see around Kathmandu. Since most of us are first time to Nepal, we rent a van from hotel to bring us tour around Kathmandu today. We paid 3000 Rupees for visits of 4 places: Swayambhunath, Budhanilkantha, Boudnath Stupa and Pashupatinath. We took off from Hotel at 9am. But soon find out that the road that we were heading was blocked. I have no idea what had happened but I saw the red Maoist flag. All vehicles are forced to turn back. Our driver tried to use another road and it was blocked once again. I saw burning tyres on the road. We started to worry will this happen when we want to go airport tomorrow? The driver seems to know a lot of alternative roads. At the 4th time trying, we managed to reach Swayambhunath.
Each of us paid 100 Rupees for admission. This hilltop temple is also well known as monkey temple because of many monkeys in this area. We can overlook the city of Kathmandu from here. The big stupa at hilltop with lots of prayers flag is quite stunning. But this is not the biggest stupa in Kathmandu. We spent about 1 hour at Swayambhunath before proceed to the 2nd destination.
I had fall asleep on the journey. When I woke up, we had arrived Budhanilkantha temple. The admission is free. A Hindu god Vishnu statue which carved on black stone is lying in the middle of small pond. There are a lot of Hindus queue up to bath it. Only Hindus are allowed to enter that area. We only spent about half an hour in this place.
Next destination is Boudnath Stupa – the largest stupa in Kathmandu valley. 100 Rupees admission fee is needed for each person. I saw it in magazines for many times. To my surprise, it is located at middle of the city. The eyes appeared on the stupa look in four directions. The eyes that look like half open half close with the question mark shape nose has become the special symbol of Nepal.
It’s lunch time. Kok Yuen found a special place for lunch. It is a Chinese restaurant at the small street behind the Boudnath Stupa. We definitely crave for Chinese food now. There is a garden in front of the restaurant. Persimmon fruits hang on the tree. It seems ripe but nobody picks them. Once the permission is given by the restaurant waiter, 
Kok Ming immediately climbed up the tree, picked the fruits and threw it to Kok Yuen. They worked very well with each other. One person picks and throws, another one hold and put it into plastic bag. ;) The food here was quite nice, big portion and cheap.
The last place to visit is Pashupatinath. I had been told that it is a crematory for Hinduism. It was built beside the Bagmati River. Once the body has been cremated, the ashes will be scattered to the river. Hindus believe that the water of the Bagmati River is holy because it eventually flows into Ganges. There are 2 cremation grounds separated by a bridge. One is used by the royalty and another is used by citizen. There is an orphan house near Pashupatinath. 
Kok Yuen and Foung Yee had brought some foods and clothes for them. We left this place and back to Hotel around 4pm.At night, we went to Momotaru Restaurant again for dinner. Then, we went for shopping, bought some snacks back to hotel and played cards as yesterday.
No comments:
Post a Comment