Following My Dream in Nepal: Temples, Mandalas, Monkeys, and Lonely Planet

Om mani padme hum is the Buddhist mantra meaning, literally, "hail to the jewel in the lotus"
We heard this phrase a handful or times in all of the painting shops we visited in the ancient city of Bhaktapur. There are many painting schools throughout the greater Kathmandu area that sell mandala paintings. Each one has a different meaning (peace, good luck, karma, the circle of life) and many have the Buddhist om mantra written on them. The amount of detail in each is incredible.

Our day on Saturday started with our "tour guide", Vishnu. We're still not sure if he was a real tour guide or just a local pretending to be a tour guide and we are pretty sure he received commission from certain tourist shops because much of the tour included walking through side streets between each square to visit shops, where he tried to convince us to go inside and look at the beautiful artwork, scarves, and clothing. Despite our speculations about his legitimacy we decided as long as he took us where we needed to go we didn't mind paying him. If he missed something we always had lonely planet to rely on. After our day in the small city we took a bus up a hill to the temple Changu. It is one of the oldest temples in Nepal and the view is beautiful. We decided to use Lonely Planet, our best friend, to guide us around this time. The view from the temple was beautiful and it was so peaceful inside. The upside of going in the late afternoon was that there were very little tourists and the downside is that when it gets dark in Nepal there is very little transportation available and things shut down very quickly (partly because many places lack reliable electricity). As a result, by the time we took the bus back down the sun had set. Luckily we found a very helpful and very friendly local who led us through the dark streets of Bhaktapur to find the bus back to Khatmandu. An important detail to note is that bus stops and buses in Nepal are not labeled (and if it is labeled it is written in Nepali). You just have to assume that if there is a cluster of buses on the side of the road then it is probably a bus stop and then you have to ask where the bus is going. After a few tries at a few different stops who all told us, "just a five minute walk that way" we were finally on our way back to Khatmandu. When we got off the bus in Kathmandu the driver told us to get in a cab to Thamel (our hotel location) and go nowhere else, implying that the area was not the best place for us to be walking around in at night.

After a long night of worrying about the cockroaches in my bed we woke up the next morning (Sunday) to go to Patan (where we saw even more mandalas) and Pashupatinath, another full day of visiting temples. The most interesting part of the day was seeing the cremations at Pashupatinath. Along the river there was a row of flames. Each flame had a mourning family standing behind and a man tending to the fire. We were far enough away to not see too much but I noticed a body lying on the ground next to one of the flames, waiting to be cremated. From across the river we watched as the people guided their family members through the end of their cycle of life (according to Hindu belief). I took one photo, which I immediately regretted because it felt disrespectful and intrusive. It was hard for me to understand being a tourist in a place that people use to cremate and mourn their dead.

We continued walking along the river to see some temples and and met some monkeys on the way! They were everywhere and we were told that people believe they protect the temples, which I believe because we heard they can get aggressive.
It was a great way to celebrate international peace day, at a beautiful Hindu temple.
After a long weekend of temples, mandalas, monkeys, and lonely planet I was glad to have a nice meal at home and sleep in a familiar, yet rock hard, and cockroach free bed last night.