Hello everyone. Somehow after last night's post, I got locked out of this blog. I cannot log in to edit, nor can I log into my Google email that's associated with the account. I keep getting a locked out error. So, I selected a photo that I had uploaded to Flickr, selected the blog this button, and lo and behold, I can access this way. I have some messages into Google support, but my posts may be sketchy for a while. I'll write about this photo below, but first a quick update on the situation that I wrote about last night.
After logging off at the internet cafe last night, the man next to me asked about my photos of the protesters that he had seen and introduced himself as a journalist. He said that clashes between the Tibetans and the Chinese are pretty frequent, but never make the press here -- the Nepali are just too afraid of pissing off the Chinese government. He invited me to meet him and some other journalists today so that they can explain the situation to me and I think I'll go. In the meantime, my friend Beth (not Welliver) posted a good explanation in a comment on yesterday's post.
On to the photo. After doubling around to get by the demonstrators yesterday, I got a little lost and after some bad directions, ended up at the city bus station. There is no information desk there and all signs and writing on buses is in Nepali. There's not even a ticket window -- you pay cash on the bus. Usually tourists take "micro buses" (vans) out of another area. When I tried to ask a man to point me in the direction to walk to a certain temple, he took my arm, pulled me on a bus, said something to the driver and then hopped off as the bus started moving. There I was on a bus with no English speakers and no idea where I was going. Luckily, a college student boarded later and sat next to me. After circling the city, she got me off at the right stop and pointed me in the right direction. Experiences like these are all just part of the adventure, I guess.
I'm sorry that I don't have the name of this temple with me. It's Hindu in origin (but I'm finding that the Buddhist and Hindu religions here are greatly intertwined and somewhat meshed together here). What struck me most is that there's a house where people in their final days come to die. I guess it's sort of like a nursing home for folks at the bitter end. They also do cremations here for most Nepali in Kathmandu (unless you're a VIP or royalty, then you go somewhere else). I decided to take a seat and watch for a bit but ended up there for over an hour. I watched the workers build a stack of logs into a platform to place a body. I watched a body being carried in on a metal stretcher and placed on the platform. I watched a family say final prayers over their loved one and start the fire. And I saw the bodies burning. Each cremation takes several hours -- I just saw them each in different parts of the process and put the whole scenario together in my mind. I don't know why I was so fascinated, but I felt the need to sit there for quite some time.
Afterwards, I headed over to Bouddha. It's a very large Buddhist temple surrounded by many monastaries and businesses, mostly Tibetan. Because I had pissed off a guide at the previous temple by turning down his services, I got very bad directions. I ended up way off course and had to walk through some pretty big fields to get there. I had been told that Bouddha would be absolutely crowded with praying Tibetans, but it was nearly empty. Very few monks around and very few non tourists. I guess they were all at the Chinese embassy. Anyway, it was a beautiful place.
I'm laying a little low today and am meeting my guest house owner this afternoon to make my travel plans for the rest of my stay in Nepal. She's an incredibly helpful lady and has been very upfront in telling me about the political and economic problems here. I'll miss her while I travel around the country, but I'll be back for a couple of nights before I fly to Jordan.
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1 comment:
maybe you can get a job as a journalist.
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