Kathmandu Weds 10th

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I woke today at 9:15 am. How many years since that happened!! I hope that means the end of the jet lag.

Last night at dinner I met our Sirdar, head Sherpa, for the trip. Ang Purba has summited Everest 15 times. I know, that’s ridiculous, but for him it’s just a job!

There are 7 UNESCO world heritage sites in Kathmandu, and today we visited two of them, a Hindu and a Buddhist temple. The Hindu temple, Pashupatinath, a temple for the god Shiva, is very sacred in the Hindu religion. Hindus from all over the world visit this sacred place.

Today is was very sombre. A pall of smoke held overhead, as the smoke from many cremations rose up. Seemingly many of the bodies from the flood disaster are being cremated here. Cremation can take place in many places, but always by a river, so to return the ashes to water. Cremations at Pasupatinath are ‘special’, due to location by this sacred temple, and the location on the Bagmati river. The Bagmati is a sacred river, as it flows into the Ganges.

The temple was quite chaotic, so many people coming to worship, but also so many cremations, and people walking and swimming in the brown, gushing river. One could really feel, and see, the impact of the flood. Very unsettling, sobering.

Between culture stops, we had time for a quick lunch. In a Nepalese restaurant I had a vegetarian dal bhat. OMG, embarrassing! The sweat was running off me, literally raining on my tee-shirt. I mean visibly raining -the waiter dropped by asking “is it a bit spicy sir ?”

Across the city is Boudhanath stupa, a very sacred Buddhist temple. In contrast, here was very serene, very spiritual, really different vibe. It was spotless. People and Buddhist monks and nuns walked clockwise around the enormous stupa, with the four faces of Buddha, to signify his “all-seeing”. People spun the prayer wheels as they walked. Each prayer wheel is full of deposited written prayers, that rise up when the wheel is spun, so when you pray, you lift the prayers of many. What a thought and impact.

Tomorrow I leave for Sama, a small village up the mountains, where we begin acclimatizing. We have 3 days there hiking, before we move to base camp, for the next acclimatization step. Helicopter at 6 am. It’s getting real. Spin the prayer wheel.