Swayambunath: Monkey Temple!

Today Alina took me to Swayambhunath, affectionately called the Monkey Temple.  It is a Buddhist temple of Newar origin.  Many people I have met are some combination of Hindu and Buddhist, and they worship or show their respects at either type of temple.

Prayer Wheels

There are SO MANY MONKEYS!  We stayed and wathed them for quite some time.  One monkey tried to steal our tea and another came out of nowhere and stole a little boy's cotton candy.  His mother tried to hit it with her purse but it ran away.  They are very sneaky.

Monkey Family

Thief

There are many temples and monasteries in this area, mainly on hilltops.  You can walk from one to another without there being a clear border in between, so it's sometimes hard to tell where you are.  This was a much more peaceful place than in the madness of downtown in the city.

Monk and Dog

There are a lot of stark contrasts in Nepal.  The beauty of the holy places versus the relatively impoverished areas.  We came across a street boy with one leg, with the other leg and arms fairly deformed, writhing and begging on the ground in filth.  We couldn't even imagine something like that happening in Canada, and it made me very angry to know there was nothing I could do right then to change it.  I am already coming to face some of the major culture shocks here.

I've joined a gym called Shubha Fitness and it's been pretty entertaining so far.  It's quite far from Thamel, the tourist district, and about a 25 minute walk from the BaseCamp house.  They said they never get foreigners (videsi) and I tend to get a lot of strange looks.  They seem to respect me now that they see I know what I'm doing and I chat with a few of the regulars.  Hopefully it won't be too much of a spectacle before long.  Yesterday morning I attended some kind of crazy Nepalese Bollywood jazzercise class set to Venga Boys music.  It was completely bizarre and I spent most of the class trying not to laugh.

Sneak peek...

Gulaabi, Pahelo, Nilo, Hariyo, Raato...

Alina has been a wonderful language teacher and guide for this week of orientation.  We went out shopping for a sari so I have some appropriate formal wear, and she showed me how to bargain and how to use various phrases.  I must have tried on every sari in the shop, but we were practising the names of colours and I got a nice one so I'm sure it's okay.  We had to go to a different shop to get the blouse and petticoat made, but that guy was sick so we had to go to his brother's tailoring shop instead, etc. etc. Nepal time...it will hopefully be finished by Saturday so I can wear it to our cultural dinner Sunday night after finally going to the school to meet everyone!

Oh, and the food is unreal too.