This morning, Ben and I got coffee and momos, and he bought some pants on the street.
Momos and Curry!
this lady was dusting off her goods (bags/wallets/etc.)
Also, lots of motorcycles in Nepal
We had seen a building close to our Airbnb that appeared to be under construction. We decided to go check it out. We went to the roof, which was really cool because you could see the entire city! There were some other people up there who gave us weird looks, haha.
Top of a building that was under construction
Kathmandu
Kathmandu
Kathmandu
Ben looking over Kathmandu
We asked our Airbnb host if we could "camp" on the roof that night. We told her were expecting to camp more, but had stayed in Airbnbs the entire time. Bless her heart; she told us if we didn't have enough money we could just stay in the room for free that night. We told her money wasn't an issue, we'd even pay to sleep on the roof, she was confused but fine with it! (her mother, who didn't speak any English, was probably very confused).
Some other kind of temple?
Big man runnin' the store
Street
Street
Sadhus (monks). I loved their bright colored robes. They'd always carry around buckets asking people for change.
We went to the Pashupatinath Temple but apparently you have to pay Rs.1000 ($9.95) to go in, which we weren't expecting and didn't exactly want to pay. As we were walking away, some guy told us if we go to the end we can go in for free. As we got to the end, we met some guy who told us he was a tour guide for the temple and he could get us in for free and if we paid him he would give us a tour of the temple (because he was Hindu, he understood the temple and could explain it to us); so we agreed to the tour.
Pointed at these birds, cows, and monkeys out to Ben and the front monkey "jumped" at me! We later learned that if you point at monkeys, they take it as a threat. Don't do that.
This guy was feeding these stray dogs. So cute.
Right as we entered, we saw several concrete slabs, many of which had fires and people standing around them. Our guide told us that they were cremating people! This blew our minds because we've never seen a live cremation before (no pun intended). He and everyone else seemed to be very casual about it. We had to verify a few times that we were talking about the same kind of cremation, and he said yes. He explained that they cremate people here everyday and push their ashes into the Bagmati River, which is holy to Hindus and Buddhists. As the ashes go down stream, they lead the spirit to Nirvana.
Cremation
Inside the temple grounds
Opposite the temple. This is called a ghat: they're stairs leading down to the river
the temple had big speakers that were playing this song.
It's a song for Lord Shiva, or something?
Smoke from the cremations + the Bagmati River
The temple
Towards the end of the tour we told our guide we felt a little skeptical about the entire situation because we had seen some other people just walk in and they didn't get in trouble and because we didn't really need a tour in the first place, we felt like we were being ripped off. Also, he met us at the back end of the temple; instead of the front, like a "normal" tour guide. He assured us that they would get in trouble and he works for the temple, giving people tours.
Cremations, from above. Didn't even smell bad.
When we finished the "tour", he asked us for Rs.1000 each ($10)! We argued that the original price to get into the temple is Rs.1000 ($10) and that he said he could get us in for free + a small price for the tour. He said he did get us in for free, and that he has to give Rs.500 ($4.82) to the temple and he only gets to keep Rs.500 for himself. I said, "let's go talk to the guards, so we can see you give the money to them. Because no offense, we don't believe you. We have been scammed in India several times, so we are familiar with scams and have a feeling that's what you're trying to do." Of course he told us not to go to the guards because it's an "underground job" and he could get in trouble because if another tourist heard, they'd want a tour for a cheaper price.? In the end we each paid him Rs.500 ($4.82) and walked away. We told him that if he tried to follow us and/or "cause a scene", we would go to the guards and tell them what he's doing; he left us alone after that.
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