Our first full day in Nepal

...and what a day it was! We went all over Kathmandu, with the help of Aarti, of course. Aarti wanted to show us the top sites just in case we don't get another weekend in KTM. We started our day out with a wonderful breakfast at our guest house- more like a four course meal! While Aarti, Katherine and Elisabeth went to the airport to fetch their bags (all of us now have our belongings!), Arran and I bummed around Patan square, where our guest house is- there really are not words to describe our surroundings, but I'll try- haphazard motorcycles, cars, tuk-tuks (small gutted out vans) and buses fill the streets, dodging pedestrians left and right, busy store-fronts along every road selling anything from oranges to sandals, gorgeous little Nepali children yelling at us, "hello!" and smiling from ear to ear.

Later on in the morning, we visited Boudhanath, one of the largest buddhist pilgrimage sites in the world- it was breath-taking. It is custom to walk clockwise around the temple, running your fingers along metal tins that spin when you hit them. The colored fabric shown in the pictures are countless prayer flags that are hung up and as they age, bits of cloth unravel and float up to the skies to represent prayers being heard/answered. We were also able to visit a monastery and visit the inside of a buddhist temple (or stupa). It was unreal. 15-foot high gold statues of the buddha with his life and journeys painted on the walls in colorful paint. It was humbling.

Next, we went to Pashupati, one of the largest Hindu pilgrimage sites in the world. There were mini temples dedicated to all the Hindu gods scattered about. The site was split down the middle by the holiest river in KTM where the locals cremate their deceased loved ones and dump their ashes into the river. There were these same rituals occurring while we were there- also extremely humbling and haunting. On a lighter note, there was numerous monkeys climbing all over Pashupati :)

We ended the day by doing some shopping in Thamel. We all bought some Nepali garb at one shop and the shop owner had a cafe next door all bring us chia (not chai) which is "tea" in Nepali- it is so delicious! It is black tea with milk and sugar- MMMMmmmm! After that we had some beer and apps at one of Aarti's favorite local restaurants= more deliciousness. Well that was my day (holy moly!), hope you're enjoying the ride so far, I know I am! xoxo