Well friends, it was bound to happen. I got the infamous "Delhi belly" and have been dilleriously bed ridden (but at least with wifi) for the past 36 hours.
I unfortunately have not experienced much of kathmandu since I arrived Wednesday night but perhaps it's not such a bad thing as my body and mind needed a bit of a rest.
On Friday I met my friend Jessie and headed out to see some sights. We took a taxi to a place called pashupatinath in the north east part of the city to look at some Hindu temples. Pashupatinath was sort of like a mini version of Varanasi as the temples were around a holy river with ghats and cremations. Not sure if there is a worse smell than the smoke coming from bodies being cremated. Just like the Ganges in Varanasi, the river here was very polluted. And so were the temples which made me sad. I thought that because we had to pay a whopping 500 rupees to get access to them, that perhaps there would be some sort of system in place to keep the area clean. More of my wisfull thinking. I saw some of the monkeys, who are all over the place, eating garbage like freezie wrappers. Sad. The monkeys were awesome though, and had red bums! In Kenya, many of the monkeys have blue bums. Weird eh?
From pashupatinath, Jessie and I walked about 2km to a tibetan temple called the bouddha stupa. It was easy to tell that I was in Nepal and not in India just from this walk. Dirty, polluted, and crowded, just like India, but unlike india, with women and no leering from men. For the most part, I've noticed that the Nepali don't pay you much attention. They go about their business and let you go about yours. You still get haggled to buy things and to go trekking, but get none of the gross attention from men. Why is that? Is Nepal less sexually repressed than India? It can't be a religious thing because most people here are Hindus also. Who knows, it's a mystery.
The stupa was cool. Lots of Buddhist prayer wheels and flags and lots of people praying which looked like a type of yoga. People would be set up on wooden mats with cloth in their hands that they would slide down on when praying. The stupa (like all stupas) is in a circular formation that must be walked around clockwise. It also has a dome and a steeple-esk formation at the top with eyes painted below it. Apparently each stupa is built with the same elements, each element representing a different aspect of the Buddhist faith. I do promise to post pictures when I have the energy and will power to leave my bed.
Jessie and I then went to a roof top restaurant to eat dinner and get a better view of the stupa. I should have known, as the restaurant we went to was called "paradise," that things were about to go south. At 3:30am I woke up with the Kathmandu version of Delhi belly and have been lying in bed since then. All I can say is thank god for my iPod touch and the kindness of maritimers.
Most of yesterday was spent listening to wiretap podcasts from CBC radio 1. Honestly, if you haven't listened to this show, you must do so immediately! It's basically a mélange of monologues and phone conversations between this Jewish 40 yr old montrealer named Jonathan and the myriad of bizarre friends he has. Kind of like the Canadian radio show version of Seinfeld. I can't remember a time when I laughed so hard! Thankfully Jessie came by yesterday as well and brought me sick supplies: water, Gingerale, advil, rehydration salts, and gingernuts! For those of you who don't know, gingernuts are British Ginger cookies that basically helped me survive my 9 months in Kenya!
So that's it for now. Sorry this blog has been a bit of a bore as of late. I'm going to rest up and try to head to pokhara on Tuesday to organize a few days of trekking in the Annapurna region before booking a flight (!!!!) back to India (thanks mum for knowing I can't do that two day local bus journey again!!!). Thanks also to Katherine, tim, Jenny, and Peter who have sent me very encouraging and kind emails the past few days- it's really helped!
I unfortunately have not experienced much of kathmandu since I arrived Wednesday night but perhaps it's not such a bad thing as my body and mind needed a bit of a rest.
On Friday I met my friend Jessie and headed out to see some sights. We took a taxi to a place called pashupatinath in the north east part of the city to look at some Hindu temples. Pashupatinath was sort of like a mini version of Varanasi as the temples were around a holy river with ghats and cremations. Not sure if there is a worse smell than the smoke coming from bodies being cremated. Just like the Ganges in Varanasi, the river here was very polluted. And so were the temples which made me sad. I thought that because we had to pay a whopping 500 rupees to get access to them, that perhaps there would be some sort of system in place to keep the area clean. More of my wisfull thinking. I saw some of the monkeys, who are all over the place, eating garbage like freezie wrappers. Sad. The monkeys were awesome though, and had red bums! In Kenya, many of the monkeys have blue bums. Weird eh?
From pashupatinath, Jessie and I walked about 2km to a tibetan temple called the bouddha stupa. It was easy to tell that I was in Nepal and not in India just from this walk. Dirty, polluted, and crowded, just like India, but unlike india, with women and no leering from men. For the most part, I've noticed that the Nepali don't pay you much attention. They go about their business and let you go about yours. You still get haggled to buy things and to go trekking, but get none of the gross attention from men. Why is that? Is Nepal less sexually repressed than India? It can't be a religious thing because most people here are Hindus also. Who knows, it's a mystery.
The stupa was cool. Lots of Buddhist prayer wheels and flags and lots of people praying which looked like a type of yoga. People would be set up on wooden mats with cloth in their hands that they would slide down on when praying. The stupa (like all stupas) is in a circular formation that must be walked around clockwise. It also has a dome and a steeple-esk formation at the top with eyes painted below it. Apparently each stupa is built with the same elements, each element representing a different aspect of the Buddhist faith. I do promise to post pictures when I have the energy and will power to leave my bed.
Jessie and I then went to a roof top restaurant to eat dinner and get a better view of the stupa. I should have known, as the restaurant we went to was called "paradise," that things were about to go south. At 3:30am I woke up with the Kathmandu version of Delhi belly and have been lying in bed since then. All I can say is thank god for my iPod touch and the kindness of maritimers.
Most of yesterday was spent listening to wiretap podcasts from CBC radio 1. Honestly, if you haven't listened to this show, you must do so immediately! It's basically a mélange of monologues and phone conversations between this Jewish 40 yr old montrealer named Jonathan and the myriad of bizarre friends he has. Kind of like the Canadian radio show version of Seinfeld. I can't remember a time when I laughed so hard! Thankfully Jessie came by yesterday as well and brought me sick supplies: water, Gingerale, advil, rehydration salts, and gingernuts! For those of you who don't know, gingernuts are British Ginger cookies that basically helped me survive my 9 months in Kenya!
So that's it for now. Sorry this blog has been a bit of a bore as of late. I'm going to rest up and try to head to pokhara on Tuesday to organize a few days of trekking in the Annapurna region before booking a flight (!!!!) back to India (thanks mum for knowing I can't do that two day local bus journey again!!!). Thanks also to Katherine, tim, Jenny, and Peter who have sent me very encouraging and kind emails the past few days- it's really helped!
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