After the excellent tour I had with Deepak yesterday, I hired him for another tour today. He quoted me a price for taking my back to Bhaktapur (the site I was at on my first day in Kathmandu where we got chased out by rain), and to another temple that is the oldest in the area and another UNESCO site, and back to my hotel. I got all of that travel plus his company and guiding for six hours, for less than the taxi would have cost me. Plus he picked me up at my hotel on his 150cc motorcycle!
The ride to Changunarayan Temple (the oldest one) took about an hour and was an amazing ride through the streets of Kathmandu and out into the country around Bhaktapur. The roads were not always terrific, and in fact sometimes they were very treacherous.
When we arrived we had to walk up a hill through a small town to get to the temple. It is another pagoda style temple which looks slightly oriental in construction. Deepak took me around the site and told me lots of information about the gods of Hinduism. There are three mains gods: Brahma – the creator, Vishnu – the protector and Shiva – in charge of destruction and recreation. All of these gods come in many different forms and names. Deepak tried to explain it by comparing it to our lives, in that we all have different roles to play and hats to wear, parent, teacher, coach, boss, wife, husband, etc., just like the gods do. In addition the other god that gets a lot of attention and temples built to him, is Ganesh who is the son of Shiva and has the head of an elephant. He is the god of wisdom and good luck.
After the tour we sat at an outdoor place and had a coke, before getting back on the bike for the ride to Bhaktapur. Deepak gave me a great tour there too, and I found out the site was larger than I thought. We walked around for a few hours, exploring the back streets, visiting temples, watching potters making clay pots and vases, and watching people. There was a festival going on today, and we came across an area where there were a number of young girls going through a ceremony preparing them for the day they would be getting married. Because all the families are poor they all perform the ceremony together to cut down on the costs.
The valley of Kathmandu used to contain three kingdoms of different ethnic groups, Kathmandu, Bhaktapur and Patan. Over the centuries they fought wars with each other. All three had palaces for their kings, and these are what the Durbar Squares refer to. They are all old palaces and medieval cities complete with temples and other monuments. Bhaktapur Durbar Square is perhaps the best of the three UNESCO sites.
When we were finished Deepak bought us a light lunch of mo mos, which are vegetable or chicken dumplings. Then he drove me back to the hotel. I enjoyed his company and learned a lot about his culture, more than I would have wandering around by myself.
I had dinner and met a group of hypnotists who were attending a convention! Can you imagine that? I told them about being successfully hypnotized to quitting smoking.
Hey Joe, what about Kali...I think she might be the patron goddess of Nepal...maybe even Kathmandu.
ReplyDeleteI love that there was a hypnotist convention in Kathmandu...who knew they had conventions!
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