Nepal (part 7: Last days)

The change from the calm atmosphere, beautiful surroundings and clean air in the monastery made Kathmandu look like a mad house. We had two nights booked in a modernish little hotel downtown, where I had my first coffee in weeks!

We arrived in Kathmandu at lunchtime and simply wandered through the old town, took a bit of a ‘guided tour’ for a reckommended walk in our guide book. We had changed so much! We had become confident in crossing the roads, navigating the narrow lanes packed with people, coped with the noise and the dust…! (Photos from that walk in the last post…).

On our last full day, we visited Patan, which appears to be more or less part of Kathmandu these days, as those old small independent city states have grown geographically and have become part of the ‘Kathmandu Valley’. We saw the main sites, the Durbar Square, old palace, old city, bazaar… again – it was devastating to see the earthqake damage.

There were artisans working everywhere, welding, painting, beating cotton prior to sewing it into mattresses… 

Patan must be the place with the highest number of worship sites per square metre in the world! Wherever we looked, there was prayer, incense, offerings.

The bazaar was simply stunning…

In the evening we were taken out by our travel agents. We had a very fun evening in a very noisy restaurant with plenty of food and drink and dance.

We had no plans for our very last day, happy to let things just evolve – and evolve they did! We got picked up by one of the founding members of the travel agency to view the school he had founded. He is an extraordinary man boundless energy, vision, organisational talent and a huge heart! 

Apart from learning so much about this incredible school, it was amazing to look out from the buildings rooftop and spot the local dairy farm (remember, we are in the CBD of Kathmandu!), kids playing, mothers showering their children with a garden hose…

After that private tour, he took us to his nearby home and we met his entire family! Parents, siblings, nieces… and had a wonderful long lunch and conversations. What a way to end these amazing three weeks!

The final goodbyes…, I won’t say anything about those…

We have been back now for 4 weeks. Whilst I do get carried away with worries and stresses that come with our insanely complex life style, in those moments I try to recall any of those wonderful experiences and imagine what the Buddha would advise me to do… and often I hear him say “this is merely a First World worry…”.