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Hello again!
Well today has been very eventful, so I shall start at the beginning...
I woke up at half 5 with the intention of getting he bus to Pokhara, but when I got to the bus station I found out it had been cancelled, so I am hoping to make the trip tomorrow! As I was still very tired I decided to head back to the hotel and get some sleep before starting my adventure for the day!
I decided to leave the hotel (camera in arm this time!) and go exporing. After having some yummy orange juice and a pastry I wondered around just takingg everything in, and came across a henna place where I decided to get my right hand done :) I absoletly love it... and it was ridicouly cheap! After leaving there I carried on walking around, and an Australian man stopped me to chat,he was travelling all over india etc for 7 months and we went for a drink to get out of the sun cos today has been so hot! We both wanted to see the temples and the sqaure so we decided to go together, and walked through the streets of Thamel which were full of these amazing smells, one minute you could turn a corner and the smell would be overbearingly horrible, and the next shop had sickly insence buring.
We got to Durbar Square which has 48 temples in total, and a guide showed us round after we haggled the price down! We had about an hour and a half tour of the temples - only one of which was open and we were really lucky becuase at 4 inside this temple to Godess was going to show herself. The story about how the Godess is chosen is amazing, they have to have 39 divine qualitites, and then they are put in a dark room when they are 3 with the blood and carcas of 9 buffalo and surrounded my cobras for 24 hours and if the do not scream and play in the blood of the buffalo and have all these qualities they become the godess, and they stay the godess until they get thier first period and then the hunt for a new godess starts all over again. In the time she is a godess her feet cannot touch the floor outside and she is only allowed outside once a year when she travels around Kathmandu valley in a chariot 13 times to ward off natural disasters. Anyhoos, the whole tour was fascinating and the place was overwhelming beautiful and very very hot!
We then decided to take a Rikshaw - which was a great experience to say the least, if not frightening - up to the Monkey temple. This was breathtakingly beautiful set at the top of 111 steps which is apparenly the amoun of days it would take of mediation to reach enlightenment. The monkeys were out all over the place. Walking to the top was something of a feat in the stickly heat but at the top the view was amazing you could see all over Kathmandu Valley. And for all the people that were there it was so peaceful.
We then walked back to Thamel, and got a bit lost along the way. There were cows walking the streets which was quite leathal but altogether very amusing. The horrible thing was all the meat being soldon the side of the road it had bugs swarming all over it and the smell was immense!
Now I'm back at the hotel, and will be going to have some food soon, a nice cold shower and a big sleep ready for the jounrey to Pokhara tomorrow if evrything goes to plan!
Big Smiles, Missing you all loads
Rachel xxxx
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