Welcome back and Namaste!!

So my day was wonderful full of meeting new people and seeing (not so new) things firstly big thanks to Sujan he introduced me to his 2 friends who have very kindly offered to show me around Kathmandu. I decided the first time it was so rushed i wanted to do it again! So firstly we went to Sujans office and being very organised came up with a plan for the next week. He wrote it down and everything!! Then after a while chatting and drinking tea we headed to Boudhanath! This place is wonderful a huge stupa where buddests go to pray there is such a wonderful atmosphere i could spend all day there Just to watch the world go by!! There are people everwhere you look with pray beads running there finger over one by one saying "om mani ped me hum" they walk around the stupa many times clockwise spinning the hundreads of prayer wheels along the way. We did the same its a wonderful way to Pray! Some people do prostations (i think thats what you call it) it not only praying but strenuas exersize you are in a standing position and then you slide you hands down so you are in a lying position and old old men and women do this everyday maybe 20-50 times madness! Then we went into some of the wonderful monestrys there are many surrounding the stupa all bright and colourful!! Lots of budda statues and prayer wheels one bigger than me that you hold on to and walk round with... Amazing i will definatly be going back!! Next after sitting and just watching for a while we headed to Pashupati it was a 30 min walk via a tea stop in a small local place these place are tiny and just have a few seats and a counter!

I had fanta and the boys had tea x3 and the cost 80rp thats 8p in england!! Crazy hey!! So eventually we got to pashupati which is a series of hindu temples for worshipping and also a cremation site. (you no the eating bodys place) well this time was different i was with hindus and they acctually explained the history and reasons and it began to make sense still not something i would like for my family but in there culture its the norm. So the first temple was for hindus only which is a shame ut futher on past the deer incloser (strange place to have a nature reserve in the middle of a city) we arrived at the main section there are hundreads of monkeys here cute but evil and most have rabies i gave them a good distance!! We sat for a while at the veiw point and Sujan and his friend who is a hindu priest explained the temples and gods and reasons why things are the way they are we watched a body being ritulaed with water ... we then watched it be carried to the cremation place and then the family say goodbye ... the women say goodbye but do not watch the cremation you could here them crying very very sad!! Then once the women have gone the men stay and watch the body set alight and slowly turned to ashes the ashes are then thrown into the river as it is seen the purest place. It then went dark and after a power cut a praying cerimone started 3 men who together used fire and waved them around to music... it was beautiful to watch and very pretty in the night sky...

Then we got hungry and headed out for some dinner we walked for a while and saw Sutchin Sujans brother and joined with us we went to a nice resturante called the bakery cafe and i had chicken sizzerler mmmm was good the boys all shared 2 pizza, momo's and 2 chicken noodles we all had hot chocolate and water and the price 1771.27rp thats 17 pounds bargin so i paid my treat!! thats the price of one nice main meal in england!!

so after a walk back we chatted about cars and this and that and Sujan showed me the way to his house one last time as today i am meeting his friend Harivhar who is taking me to Patan and i can never remember the way i hope i can this time pressure is on!! i meet him at 2:30 and so i have time to kill may go back to Boudhanath and watch the world go by for a while!! Just means me sussing out the way! JOYS everywhere looks the same here..

I realised in my last blog i never told you about teaching well it was wonderful i was rubish and you would have guessed and i really do dought they learned anything i really do but did we have fun!! YES!! we played games all the time they smiled all the time and i did too the first day they where so stern looking by the time i had finished they had hudge beemng smiles everyday!! i had a range from 3 - 8 monks and as the time went by more and more came as the good news spread... Dad As for rude words OPPS by accicident i did but they don't no the difference and hopefully never will.

So think thats all from me today... Looking forward to you message Rob!! I will be chatting to you all soon about Patan!!

Goodbye England

Love

Polly

xx