Hardcore Touristing

After waking up Saturday morning and having our flight tour of Mount Everest get cancelled due to weather, we had an entire day to kill in Kathmandu. By suggestion of Rahm, the manager at the place we are staying, we paid a driver to take us to a couple different sites so we could have more time exploring and have to not worry about taking cabs all over the place. We visited four different places and spent about an hr at each. First we visited the Pashupatinath Temple (One of the most significant temples to the Hindu god Shiva in the world) where we saw many Sadhu (holy men), admired the architecture dating back to the 17th century, and witnessed the ceremonial cremation of the deceased. Our next trip was to Bouddha which is one of the holiest Buddhist sites in Nepal where we saw one of the largest Stoupas in the world. Next we ventured over to Swayambhunath, which is a large buddist temple on top of a mountain that is also known as the monkey temple due to the population of holy monkeys on site. Finally, for dinner and a quick site see we went to Durbar square in Patan (there is another one in Kathmandu) where the architecture dates back to the 14th century. Below I’ve attached the Wikipedia links to the places we visited for more information on their historical significance.
At the end of the day, myself and our other party members were all exhausted but overwhelmed by what we had seen. I feel like these two religions are an important part of Nepalese culture and was very privileged to have the opportunity to spend some time visiting such amazing religious and historical sites. I think today was a great chance to learn more about a side of Nepal both as an interested tourist and traveler but also from the standpoint of someone who will be spending time in the coming weeks providing medical care to the people who hold these places as sacred. Anything that will help us relate to the Nepalese people can only serve to benefit us for the next three weeks.
Namaste!
-Tom

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pashupatinath_Temple
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boudhanath
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swayambhunath
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durbar_square (the one in Kathmandu is described here.)