Burning Desire For FIRE

Today was a travel day. We flew a massive 25 minutes from Chitwan back to Kathmandu.
One of the first people I saw was this cool kid.

Today is a Hindu festival for women.

Raj said that yesterday the women all go to their parents’ places, and today they get dressed in red saris and fast.

There were red saris absolutely everywhere.

Once we got to the hotel, we went out for lunch and then wandered around, doing some shopping.

This all looks very serene… until you read the sign…

It’s a screaming goat being eaten by a crocodile.
omg.

I didn’t partake.

People in Nepal really love their colours.

I wanted to take a few shots of the crazy traffic here, but I was too busy dodging and weaving to be able to stop and get a shot.

It occurred to me that this would be a great place to get a duck down jacket. I tell you without a word of a lie, Macy gave me a masterclass in haggling. She is fantastic. I ended up getting a goose down jacket for $36 AUD.
Insane

Tomorrow we fly to Bhutan. I’m excited. After listening to a Trevor Noah podcast, Bhutan was why I booked this trip.

Dad joke of the day:

Just after breakfast, which I ate with my (thankfully) dry boots from washing, I got a WhatsApp from Hazel’s breeder. Hazel’s mum has had another litter, and one of them is a ruby! Of course, I snapped her up immediately.

Her name will be Ivy. I’m very excited!

Now, back to Nepal.

On our way to our canoe ride, we saw this lady walking her goat. As you do.

As we drove in, we saw an elephant grab a sack from the ground and nonchalantly toss it up to the man on his back. It looked very funny.

They have elephant rides here for the Chinese tourists, apparently. They seemed very popular.

We were going birdwatching and animal spotting in a dugout canoe.

There are crocodiles here. By the time about 12 of us got in, the boat was very low in the water…

The seats are best described as rudimentary. And extremely low to the ground.

It was a beautiful morning, but even at 8:30, the humidity was climbing.

We saw quite a few things, but I won’t repeat them. Egrets, of course. They’re everywhere. Just out of shot was a crocodile, not even bothering to try and eat it. Remember how in Arnhem Land the guide said that egrets are the only things crocodiles won’t eat?

We saw quite a few kingfishers. They’re such a satisfying bird to see, all chunky and colourful.

Lots of crocs.

A few Chinese tourists in their native habitat.

And then, big excitement. Another rhino. The guides immediately told us to be quiet as we drifted past.

White-browed wagtails.

This was a very nice way to spend an hour.

We were on dry land, and our guide asked us if we wanted to go on a short jungle walk, or if we wanted to go straight to the elephant breeding station. When he mentioned that the conditions would be muddier than yesterday, I plumped most decidedly to go straight to the elephants.
No more spending hours scrubbing and drying out boots for me!

Before we set off, the guides told us what to do if a tiger or elephant attacked.

Look at the elephant grass that was surrounding us. A tiger could be a couple of inches away and you’d never know it.
I decided to stick close to the man with the stick.

After walking a few minutes, we heard a sound close to us through the tree line of the jungle. The guides tensed up and had a quick conversation.

There are 3 wild elephant bulls that hang around the elephant breeding station. They’re permitted to do so, because ever since they started fathering babies instead of captive bulls, infant mortality plummeted.
They’re permitted to one the guides didn’t want us to encounter was Ronaldo, so called because he kills by kicking people like a soccer ball.

They moved us along pretty smartly.

There were around 7 or 8 mums and babies at the breeding centre. They’re permitted to babies are also chained up, because when they left the babies to run free, they’d run off and their mothers would pull against the chains and injure themselves trying to catch up with them.

When the men take the elephants and their babies out into the jungle each day, they’d run off search for dry wood kindling to cook on. Nepal has to import all of its gas, so wood fires for cooking makes sense.

This is called a No monkey climb tree. It has thorns all over the trunk when young.  It’s a great tree to hide behind if a rhino comes.

Locals make boats from the trunk, like the one we went in this morning.

The branches are good for elephant food. A local type of cotton is also harvested from it.

And a view of a typical Nepalese street as we went back to the hotel for lunch.

After lunch and a nap, we were back out, this time for a jeep safari. A little bit like the African safaris.

Remember the No Monkey Climb tree? Zoom in, and you’ll see the thorns on the trunk.

At first, the terrain was like this. Thick grasses, which could be hiding anything anywhere. Then, about 15 minutes into the drive, we rounded a corner and saw this:

It seems like rhinos are practically throwing themselves at us.

He had a couple of passengers on his back.

Look at what a rhino’s rear end looks like!

I’m including this one because our guide saw this rhino in the water 100 metres from the road. Well spotted.

Snake bird, for obvious reasons.

Honestly, this crocodile looked like it was striking a pose for the camera.

Jungle my a, Durango and shrike. No, I don’t know which is which, either.

A cormorant, drying its wings.

Yet another rhino. We saw others, including a white rhino hiding in the vegetation behind this one, but I’m not including any photos that aren’t ok.

Except this one. Wild boar in the undergrowth.

A herd of Spotted Deer.

Monkeys!

A Samba deer, the biggest deer in the park.

And then there were two…

I think this Spotted Deer and I formed some sort of psychic connection.

So close to the road! We couldn’t believe it.

A Hog Deer, so called because it moves through the long grasses like a boar. It’s endangered.

As we were driving out of the park, these Spotted Deer gave us one last hurrah.

Tomorrow, we fly back to Kathmandu.

Dad joke of the day:

Imagine living with a backdrop like this? As Rob said, we should have been doing the sunrise thing today, as it would have been spectacular. Instead, we had an earlyish start and we were headed for Chitwan National Park to spend the next couple of days communing with nature. Or something.

We stopped to take this photo on our way out of town. It’s roughly 3 hours to Chitwan, though as my friend Morgan reminded me, there are lots of roadwork delays on this road.

It was a pleasant drive. I had a snooze, because I woke at 4AM to get yesterday’s blog post written, but after that, we all chatted and the miles slipped by.

When we stopped for a loo break, Raj told us that soon we’d be crossing the Tissouli river … the river that caused all the chaos two weeks ago.

The reason the town and the bridge are all still standing is that when the torrents of water flowed past here, the river banks are far apart. It was downstream, when the banks got narrower and the cliffs higher, that the pressure in the water built up and caused the catastrophe.

It felt very strange, driving over that bridge.

There wasn’t any time to indulge in melancholic thoughts. As soon as we were over the bridge, we were stuck in a traffic jam for half an hour. There was a small landslide on the road ahead, and a crew was working on clearing it. Quite a few entrepreneurs live in this town. Quite a few men were keen to offer refreshments.

This guy even offered music.

We were in the traffic jam, when I saw something move on the top of the car next door.

”Hey! There’s a goat!”

We drove past the crew clearing the landslide. Raj said that they work for 15 – 20 minutes, then they sit back and let the traffic through, then they start working again.

We stopped for photos at a suspension bridge. I tried jumping on it, but this one was STURDY.

It’s so sad to think that something so beautiful could have killed so many people.

We were coming through the town when all of a sudden… elephants!
“ Grab a photo!” I yelled, as I scrambled to undo my seat belt.

I got the shot.

The place we’re staying I has a surprisingly tropical vibe. The constant humidity is a part of it, but the plants were definitely not what I was expecting.

My room even overlooks a couple of elephants.

We had 3 hours to kill before our jungle walk, so Macy, Anne, Russell and I decided to go for a wander in the town. I bought birthday presents for the 2 kids having birthdays this week, then as if someone opened a tap, the rain came pouring down.
We made a dash for the café over the road and emerged after the rain stopped.

As we were walking back, more elephants appeared.

Our guide on the walking tour said, “In the world there are two kinds of elephants: African and Asian. In Nepal there are also two kinds of elephant elephants: Government and private. The government ones are not used for safari.”

As we began our walk, the heavens opened again. We sheltered under a tarp spread across the street, while our guide filled in the time with random information. Apparently, this style of house is indigenous to the area.

In this part of the world, goats mean riches.

She has tattoos on her legs from the ankle to the knee. Arranged marriages… tattoos are to show that the family accepts her.

Higher class ladies have tattoos.

As we were walking, I heard a sound I’ve only ever heard in movies. It was a hand pump for water.

Then we rounded the corner, obviously still in town… and there was a rhino.

Nepalese  black one horned rhino. They are critically endangered…  roughly 4,000 left. Nepal has a quarter , while India has the rest.

When they are aggressive, they bite and crush you into the dirt. The horn doesn’t come into it.

He thoughtfully shifted position for us.

Our guide said that the best way to escape a charging rhino is to hide behind a big tree, moving around the trunk as it does. Or you could climb 6 feet up the tree.

Or you run in a zigzag, throwing food in one way and running the other way.

Sounds all too easy, doesn’t it? We were only 50 metres from it, in a suburban street, so god knows where we would’ve scattered to if push came to shove.

Then it was on into the National park. The first two elephants are twin boys aged around 24.

The rangers use them to patrol the park during monsoon season, when it gets too boggy for jeeps.

You can see the chains around his feet.
A few years ago, an American woman came here and was horrified to see this. She went home and raised money to install electric fences so the elephants could exercise free will in their paddock.

In the week after the fences were installed, 7 elephants escaped. So the chains were reinstated.

These stray dogs were with us throughout the walk, though the bitch was smarter than us and disappeared just before the leeches appeared.

Now, I love Survivor, and I’ve watched every single episode of Australian and US Survivor. But I’d never put my hat in the ring to compete, because they always have them wallowing in mud.

I can’t stand the stuff. This is what we were walking through. I was definitely not happy, particularly in one morass when I nearly went A over T. It was all over my boots, and as we kept walking, I could see that my boots were letting mud in.

But then, on the other side of the river, we saw another rhino.

There was also a herd of Spotted Deer, coming down to the riverside to drink.

Life’s too humid to stay standing.

My boots weren’t looking too flash.

People started finding leeches on themselves. Our guide was picking them off people, while Russell was picking them off his wife.
“That’s when you need a good man,” she said, “when you need to get the leeches off!”

Can you see how the leech has crawled to the edge of the leaf and is reaching out to latch onto someone? Yuck. Nasty little creature.

Meanwhile, I was unscathed. No leeches were on me whatsoever.

You can see by their perky postures just how much we enjoyed the jungle walk…

Back into town, with another storm brewing. We are very close to India here. Walk behind those blue hills and you’re there.

A peacock coming down to the river. At this time of year, they drop most of their feathers.

Then it was home again for dinner and a cultural show. I went back to my cabin, pulled off my left boot… and found at least 5 leeches feasting on my foot,

I yelped and started trying to get them off me. They were horrible. I’d grab one, pull it off my leg and find that in that split second of grabbing it, it latches onto my fingers.
I got rid of all the leeches, but there was red dye running everywhere. At first I thought it was blood, but fortunately it wasn’t. However, I now had wet boots from washing all the mud and leeches off, and I only have the one pair of shoes…

Instead of dinner and a show, I spent my evening using toilet paper and the hair dryer to dry my shoes. It took HOURS.
I left the aircon on overnight and by morning the boots were dry. Phew!

The red dye has come off my hands…

… but not my feet. I look like I’ve kicked someone to death!

No more jungle walks after heavy rain for this little black duck!

Dad joke of the day:

Well, it was too cloudy for the sunrise. This was about as good as it got.

We were above the fog in the valley. We couldn’t see the lake!

It was a very early start, with a long drive out of the city and up a mountainside on a very narrow, winding road. It was pitch black, and the van’s little lawnmower engine laboured.

People would appear, walking down the road in their hotel uniforms, going to work on the breakfast shift. We arrived before the sunrise and headed up to the top.

At the end of 370 steps, we found this massive golden Ganesh. It was only installed a few months ago.

We were surrounded by hills and mountains. Some have snow on them all year round. Raj, our guide, said, “Anything below 5,000 metres is just a hill. Anything taller than that is a mountain and they all have names.”

We were on a hill – only 1,600 metres above sea level.

I liked the simplicity of this. There are 108 taps.

in Hinduism, the number 108 represents the absolute wholeness of creation, linking the human body, maths (ugh), and the universe.

At least, that’s what AI says. Why 108 was chosen to be so significant is anyone’s guess. I just think this looks like a piece of modern art.

As we were leaving, Janeen pointed out the rat at Ganesh’s feet. Raj said that the rat serves Ganesh as a protector, and also a mode of transport if he wants to go somewhere.

it’d work as a form of protection. I wouldn’t go anywhere near Ganesh if he had a bloody big rat near him.

Then it was back down the windy narrow road to Pokhara, where we visited the temple precinct of Bindabasini. This is the oldest temple precinct in Pokhara.

My stylish boots had to be left behind. It had rained overnight and the ground was wet, muddy and slippery. I wasn’t happy.

The legend goes that the king of this area wanted to establish a temple for Shiva. He had workers transporting the huge statue to the site he nominated. One night, after a long few days of lugging the statue around, they put it down and went to sleep.

When they woke up, they couldn’t pick up the statue again. When he heard this, they put it king decreed that the temple be built around the statue where it stood.
“There must be great power in this spot,” he said.

I knew who I was going to see inside this temple!

There were many fit young men visiting the various temples. This one is whispering his wishes to the bull, in the hope that he will then pass it on to Shiva.

His wish is almost certainly that he will be given a place in the Ghurka regiment in the British army. Or failing that, the Indian army. There are squads of young men all around Pokhara, running in their hotel uniforms streets and being trained in the parks, all hoping to be selected. It’s one of the few ways they can earn a decent living and get a good wage.

Just as we jumped into the van, the rain came. We sped off to breakfast.
A word of warning for the coffee drinkers: so far all we’ve been offered at hotel breakfasts is instant coffee. This current hotel has the Nepalese equivalent of International Roast. 😩

Thank goodness I brought some coffee bags with me!

Because we elected to fly to Pokhara instead of drive, we had time to see a lot more things that weren’t on the itinerary. Turns out that The Nepalese love them a temple or twenty.
We were dropped off at a spot just below a very steep walk to the temple of Shiva at the top of a hill. Other tourists were happily whizzing past us in taxis, but Russell had airily waved away the taxi driver who’d approached us.

It was very steep, but we got there in the end. This statue awaited us:

I asked Raj why Shiva was blue. He said that it was the artist’s interpretation.

This statue is so large that we could see it from the lake far below, when we were doing our boat ride.

The statue may have been a bit theme park, but the location is undeniably beautiful.

We wandered around here for a while. I bought a medallion of Ganesh for my Christmas tree, people bought mocha drinks in tiny terracotta pots- I’m bringing two pots back home with me – and then it was down the steep hill, back to the van to see a Buddhist stupa.

We were dropped off about 15 minutes walk away. The sun was out by now, so I wore my hat, but I could feel my arms getting burned. It was my own fault. I had sunscreen with me but it was in my backpack.
There were shady patches along the way, which I welcomed.

See that SILENCE thing? They weren’t kidding. The purpose of the stupa is for calm and tranquil contemplation.

This is one of 70 World Peace Pagodas in the world, and this one is important because Buddha himself was born in Nepal. Shanti Stupa is the second oldest stupa in Nepal.

When Buddha died, his remains were divided into 8 separate sections. One of these is buried under this stupa.

Once you take off your shoes and climb up, you walk clockwise around, to see the four different sides. They depict Buddha’s life and ascension to heaven.

This one looked very Thai to me.

The big blue Shiva was visible from the next hill. The stupa was ringed with mountains. Big blue and yellow butterflies were among the flowers in the gardens.

I didn’t know at the time, but the Dalai Lama laid the first stone here, and came back to open it.

Our next stop was to a Tibetan refugee camp.

As we drove up, there were school kids running around playing soccer. Kids are amazing. The humidity was really high and we were all slicked with sweat. I licked my upper lip and it was salty.
Still, when you’re travelling, you have a different attitude to when you’re at home. Here, we all keep moving.

The women here make carpets to make some extra coin. Some of us bought. I really liked a couple of large ones that would have looked great in my backpack lounge room, but once again, travelling with carryon saved me money.

After watching a woman do some weaving, we were back in the van, driving to – you guessed it! – another temple.

This one, instead of being high on a hill, was down in a cave. Gupteswor Mahadev Cave, to give you its full name.

There was no avoiding the steps, but at least we could keep our shoes on. It was beautifully cool down there.

A couple of sneaky shots. This is the back of the cobra that (I think) is behind Lord Shiva.

A side view, with offerings.

Back up the steps! We’re certainly getting our training in for the Tigers Nest monastery in Bhutan next week!

Our last stop before the hotel was to The Helping Hand workshop, which was founded in 2009 to give marginalised people skills to earn a living. Many of the people here are deaf and mute. They had a shop, and it was the sort of place where you really want to buy something to support them, but I bought so many things in Peru that I couldn’t find anything I needed.
oh well. Other people bought things, so that’s good.

Anne was practically floating, as she was so enraptured by all of the temples we’d seen. She’s a very spiritual woman and this was right up her alley. I, however, needed something a little more grounding…

When we got back to the hotel, Macy and I decided not to have lunch. We went and did something else instead. Something that having a full stomach probably wouldn’t be a great idea to do.

What could I be doing, aside from looking at the camera?

A second later he let go, I took a deep breath … and jumped off the platform 110 metres over the river below.

Yes, after 20 years of waiting, I finally got around to doing a bungy jump.

I’m not going to lie… launching myself off that platform was hands down the scariest thing I’ve ever done. But once I felt that first bounce, it was amazing. I tried so many times to upload the video for you, but WordPress just wasn’t having it, so these stills will have to do instead.

Macy took this photo as we were heading off.
I’m so glad I finally did it. Time marches on, and I didn’t want to get too old to do it. Now I can move on with my life!

It’s funny what life brings. I never thought when booking this trip, ‘At last I’ll get to go and bungy jump!’

Haha.

Dad joke of the day:

The original itinerary had us driving from Kathmandu to Pokhara, but when I had dinner with Morgan in the city a few weeks ago, he strongly recommended that I go by plane instead.
“They’re doing roadworks on the whole stretch of highway. Not in sections; they’re working on the whole highway at once. What should take 3 hours takes 9.”

Yikes!

Added to that, a section of the highway is damaged by the landslides that happened 2 weeks ago, so our whole group elected to fly. None of us are keen to go near any unstable mountainsides. Our guide flew with us, which was handy.

So I’ve booked 2 domestic flights, plus a scenic flight around Mt Everest on the last day. I’m really looking forward to that one.

The photo is the view we had from the terrace where we had lunch. It was all very tranquil and peaceful.

Apples, anyone?

After lunch, I went shopping. I need some hot weather clothes for Egypt in November, so 4 pairs of trousers …

… and one hemp top later, I raced back to the hotel to meet everyone for a boat ride on the lake. I got lost heading back, but luckily I had taken a photo of the hotel when we left for lunch. A nice man pointed the way for me. I was only one street off.

To be honest, I was expecting something a little more high tech than a paddle boat. But the price was right… $10 for an hour for all7 of us. Unbelievable.

This isn’t high season, so most boats were unoccupied. It must be jam-packed in their summer.

Macy had first go, alongside our 80 year old captain.

I love how the people here are unafraid of colour.

As we rounded the corner, we could see a little island in the middle of the lake.

We swung around behind the island and pulled up to a little jetty. We had arrived at the Tal Barahi Mandir temple in the middle of Lake Fewa.

This is the most famous temple in Pokhara. It’s only accessible by boat.

Pilgrims come here, mainly in October and May.

Lonely hearts come here to pray for their perfect match, while newlyweds come to pray for a long and harmonious life together.

The temple was destroyed by floods a few years ago, so locals did a fundraiser that took a long while before they could rebuild. Another few months and it’ll be finished.

This is the temporary temple that the locals put up for people to use in the meantime.

They sacrifice animals here. At first the people come to pray and ask for a favour from the gods. Once it is granted, they bring their sacrifice of a goat, a chicken or a duck. If they don’t bring animals , they bring coconuts.
Pigeons are also brought here as thanks to the gods for a job well done, but for some reason – lucky for the pigeons – they’re released instead of being killed.
At least, not being killed by the humans. I noticed a fair few eagles hanging around this temple…

While we were there, two girls brought a coconut and cracked it open. They spilt some of the coconut milk at the temple. A goat/chicken/duck is still walking around because of their decision.

Russell and Rob took turns on paddling the boat on the way back.
When someone tried to give Russell shtick about how he was performing, he shot back with, “We’ve got a combined age of 157 years here!”

We ended the day with a meal at an Italian restaurant just around the corner on the main drag. It was a really good night, with lots of good conversation and excellent food.

With so few people in the group, it’s impossible to avoid people who rub you the wrong way.
*cough Jean-from-the-South-America-trip cough **

It appears that the 6 of us get along really well. Thank god!

Tomorrow we have to meet in the lobby at 4:50 AM. Apparently, we’re going to see the sunrise.

Ugh. It better be worth it!

Dad joke of the day:

This holiday began the night before my flight. Evan29 was flying into Melbourne after spending 5 weeks away at the Edinburgh Comedy Festival, where his show “Man Sings The Same Song Over And Over Again For An Hour” was literally a smash hit.
Rather than miss each other by a few hours, I headed to the airport early, booked a room and surprised him at Arrivals.
Then it was off to Kathmandu, Nepal.
Fortunate Frogdancer was offered to move seats to a full row of empty seats. AGAIN!
This was actually really lucky because I woke up that morning barely able to walk. Somehow, I’d hurt my right knee. Weird.

As it was, I was able to sleep flat for 6 hours and my knee is totally fine now. I was worried… that Tigers Nest monastery in Bhutan has a lot of steps to reach it.

The next morning, I joined up with the whole group… of only 6 people. How fantastic is this? All Aussies, with 2 married couples and another solo traveler from Sydney. Macy is married, but her husband wasn’t drawn to Nepal, so to their credit, she’s come here without him.

Our first day was a tour of some of the sights of Kathmandu.

This city is huge! It’s much bigger than I expected.
Our first stop was the ancient religious complex of Swayambhunath (Monkey Temple.)

The prayer flags have 5 colours for the 5 elements.

Blue: Sky and space (infinite open-mindedness)
White: Air and wind (compassion and purity)
Red: Fire (passion and transformation)
Green: Water (balance and harmony)
Yellow: Earth (stability and grounding)

The more the flags flap in the wind, the more they spread harmony. I bought some for my front yard. Nothing wrong with bringing the neighbourhood some good vibes.

Buddha with a sword. There’s quite the legend attached to this.

Once, there was a big lake where Kathmandu now stands. In the middle of the lake was a huge lotus where this temple now stands. Some guy, represented by the Buddha with the sword, came strolling in and thought that this valley would be a great place for a settlement.

He cut the valley with the sword and drained the lake. 

The first settlement was established in 400 AD.

Archeologically, the story holds true. This valley used to be a lake…

There’s a reason this is called the Monkey Temple. There’s quite a few of them around.

I loved the look of the brooms around here. Just bundles of sticks, but they seemed to get the job done.

The stray dogs, the tangled wiring, the women in their bright clothes. We were heading up to the top of the temple here.

It was quite the view.

The white building at the top of the mountain is a monastery. Our guide said that in days gone by, people would climb the mountain to get there.

Nowadays, they just drive.

Our next stop was an art studio, where I may possibly have bought my art souvenir from this trip. The intricacies of this style of artwork are incredible.

The art for sale starts from very basic student work taking a week or two to do, up to the Professor level, which takes a couple of months and often uses gold dust. I restrained myself and bought a mid-tier one.

The main temple on this site.

Gold pagoda … this is a temple for mothers and grandmothers. They come here to pray for pray to their children and grandchildren.

See the prayer wheels? You spin them clockwise and they get rid of all the negativity. I think we all had a go.

There are 350 steps here. If you start at the bottom, climb up, do some rituals and go down again, all of your sins are washed away.

Look at this cheeky boi, eating the offering!

Grain is scattered everywhere around this temple precinct, to feed the monkeys and birds.

Then we were off to the Kathmandu Durban Square, which is built around a palace where the royal family used to live. There are MANY temples here.

Most were built in the 17th century, but this one, the oldest, was built in the 7th century. All the wood used here was cut from a single tree. Can you imagine how big the tree would have been?

These statues are a blend of how Hinduism and Buddhism are blended here. The tops are Buddhist, while the bottoms are Hindu. With a dog in the middle.

”Sometimes there’s a cat!” said the guide when I pointed it out.

Then suddenly we were being rushed to a house a few minutes away. We raced into a courtyard, being filled with a mixture of locals and tourists.

See those windows behind the scaffolding? We were about to see the living goddess Kumari.

This is a tradition going back centuries, where a little girl is selected from one family to be the representation of the Hindu and Buddhist divine female energy, or goddess Taleju Bhawani.

She lives here in this house, secluded, with her feet never touching the ground outside. Once a day, she comes to the courtyard, where no photos are allowed. They were serious about this, confiscating phones. I decided to refrain from my usual sneaky photos.
Thirteen times a year, she is taken outside and paraded around the square with men pulling a wagon where she’s seated.

In modern times, tutors come for her education, and her family is allowed to visit, but not to stay.

Unlike the Dalai Lama, this is not a lifetime assignment. When she gets her first period, or she has a major injury with lots of blood, the goddess is said to have left her body and she is returned to her family, free to live a normal life, but with a handy government pension for life.

Being selected is regarded as a huge honour. The living goddess must pass strict screenings evaluating 32 perfection traits, including specific hair, eye, and teeth qualities, alongside a test of fearlessness.

The current one is 3 years old. She appeared above us for about 30 seconds, all dressed up and made up, before being whisked away.

Here she is.

This is the Hippy Temple. Back in the 70’s, marijuana was briefly legal. Lots of hippies flocked here, buying their MJ and coming here to sit and smoke on the steps.

Cosy boi.

Janine ended up buying some bags from this woman. On the right, the upper story of the building reminded me of the buildings in Lima with the balconies where women could see and not be seen.

I liked this old crumbling temple.

Black temple. Back in the day, they didn’t believe that people could lie in front of this temple. Otherwise they would be struck dead instantly, so it was a very good way to keep criminals honest. If anyone was accused of doing something wrong they dragged them there and they would tell the truth.

It probably doesn’t work so well today.

Here is part of the royal family’s palace. If you squint, you can see a row of portraits under the verandah roof. It’s the series of kings, ending with the massacred king and crown Prince, with the last one being so incompetent that the Nepalese people pushed him off the throne.
The Nepalese royal massacre was a mass shooting on June 1, 2001, at the Narayanhiti Royal Palace in Kathmandu, which claimed the lives of 10 people, including King Birendra and most of the royal family. 
Our guide was a child when it happened, and she can still remember the shock of it.

Excellent wooden carving, with a close-up below.

How is this even possible? They have a guard here, and I don’t blame them.

I saw this as we walked to the van to go for lunch. I hope she was bringing her washing in, rather than putting it out…

This is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Boudhanath Stupa. It used to be the biggest Stupa in the word before Myanmar stole its thunder.

Our lunch location. Are we under observation?

We came down to thundering rain. It was pelting down. This trip, I have only brought one pair of shoes and one pair of jeans, so I was worried about the jeans getting saturated, like they did in Norway when I went sloshing through the rain to get my artwork.
Naturally, all of us had left our backpacks with our umbrellas in the van. Our poor guide borrowed an umbrella from the restaurant and set off to fetch our things. I was so cross with myself for forgetting about the weather forecast. The sunny morning had lulled us all into a false sense of security.

Anne went in here to do a spot of meditation, while the rest of us stayed on the balcony, chatted and watched the rain.
Remember how excited I was to get that rain poncho in Cusco? It was worth its weight in gold.

Marigolds are popular here.

As Max from Get Smart would say: “ That’s the second biggest prayer wheel I’ve ever seen…”

Dad joke of the day: