Days 2 and 3 Kathmandu

Day 2 - Thamel
I always found the name Kathmandu very exotic. Never imagined I'd actually be here!
Nepal: population ~30 million. Apparently only 700,000 of those people live in the capital city - seems like more. Infrastructure and city planning doesn't really exist much here. Roads have been paved but have never been re-paved. Driving 30 km takes an hour. It's dusty. It's noisy. It's seriously polluted!! This place is wild!

Everyone here greets you with "Namaste!". There are guards at the gates of the hotels and at ours the little cutie is just full of smiles and sings out "Namaste!" whenever we come in. Makes me giggle every time. Jenn and I explored Thamel today, the main tourist area where many hotels and lots of souvenir shopping is had. Also lots of places to book treks or other tours and rent gear if need be (sleeping bags, tents, down parkas and the like). Later this evening we have our trip meeting where we get our information to start our tour tomorrow. FYI, the "h" in most Nepali words is not pronounced after the "t" from what I've been gathering so Thamel is pronounced: tamel.

Day 3 - Kathmandu: Hinduism and Buddhism
Today our group of 15 went out with our tour leader, BK, and explored two of the biggest sites to see in Kathmandu. First we drove in insane traffic and craziness to get to the oldest Hindu temple in the city: Pashupatinath, located on the banks of the Bagmati River (Jenn likes to call it the Basmati River so I always call it that and laugh). The Bagmati River is holy - it actually runs all the way to India - so it is used for water burials. We watched a couple of cremations at the banks of the river at this temple and then the ashes being pushed into the river. The first son is usually the one who lights the fire for the cremation and we even saw two sons shaving their heads at the side of the river after a cremation. I think BK said it meant they lost their mother or something. I hope I'm correct in saying that. I've just got so much information in my head now about so many things. Eep!
After watching the water burials we went on up the hill and saw lots of monkeys hanging around the temple and also got to sit and take photos with some of the holy men: Sadhus. What a neat experience! They were so friendly and wonderful! One of them touched my head and wished me a good life.
Once we passed through the rest of the temple area and crossed a little bridge over the river we hopped back into the bus that was waiting on the other side and off we went to the Boudhanath Stupa, a Buddhist temple. We spun the prayer wheels and did 3 turns of the stupa. The rule is you must do 1, 3, 5 or 108 turns, otherwise it's very inauspicious. Apparently 80% of the population is Hindu thought, being the birthplace of Buddha, there are also many Buddhists. The stupa was really nice and so interesting. This is our first taste of a few weeks of Buddhism. Tomorrow we are off to Lhasa, Tibet and we will see many Buddhist monasteries in that time!