Hi everyone/anyone;

Day 2 in Nepal... Today we woke early to the sounds of usic outside. We are in a master sweet at the Hotel Blue Horizon in Thamel, tomorrow we transfer to Hotel Harati, west of here. We woke at about 7, the weather was the same as yesterday, cloudy and temperate, the same as a Victorian autumn day. At 9 we met in the hotel lobby with Thapa and Siri, who would be taking us on a our for the day.

They had a "new" car for us, it had no seat belts or speedometer, but it did have an mps cd player, so we started off our drive with the sounds of contemporary Nepali pop music, which was kind of cool.

We visited various attractions throughout the day; Our driver navigated the roads well and Siri had a fantastic knowledge of Nepali history and architecture, and of the philosophy behind the buddhist and hindu symbolism and art that is literally everywhere in Nepal. He had been working in Kathmandu for seven years, after coming to the city to complete a degree in Geology. We stopped at numerous temples, or "sthupas", and spun the carved metal prayer wheels.The sthupas were mind-blowing, huge and with many levels. We saw a lot of bright painting, intricate wooden carving and limestone statues and depictions everywhere.

One of the things that strikes me most about Nepal, apart from the way that religion is so much a part of life, is that art is infused into everything. All the doorways, walls and beams at the temples were covered in symbology of the religion and gods they were erected for.

We visited a training centre for master artists and learnt so much about he different mandalas and wheels depicted in the paintings and tapestries. We also watched the students applying 24-ct gold embellishments to the completed work. the paintings ranged in size from about 40cm to 2-3m.

We also visited the monkey temple, which you will be shocked to learn is literally crawling with wild monkeys. They came so close to us as well! A brave one-armed male monkey jumped up behind Julians seat on a bench and nearly killed us both with fright.

We also visited the funeral pyres along the river, and saw the bodies being washed and cremated, then the pyres pushed into the water. Children ran along the banks with magnets tied to string, fishing for the discarded gold medallions that are layed on the mouths of the deceased as their entrance fee to nirvana.

In the mountains, they do not cremate because it is difficult to make a large enough fire, and they cannot bury because the cold temperature of the earth preserves the body for decades. Instead they have an elaborate three day ritual, which begins with the playing of instruments to attract wild boar. Once they have attraceted a number of the boar, they chop the body into small pieces and feed it to the animals. There are so many death rites based on caste, location, religion, gender, and so on. Some funerals have 60+ guests, whoweep loudly (weeping for them is mandatory). Other pyres are unattended. Some of these are elderly people who have come from far away top the river temple when they sense death approaching. They are allowed to stay in a locked private bunk for up to seven days, believing that to die at the temple is good luck and will earn them a place in heaven. Many of their fdamilies are too poor to accompany them, but others have relatives stay with them, and are provided with a doctor and nurses.

I took many photos, which I will post tomorrow, but for now it is 7:30, we spent about 9 hours on tour today and are both very tired. I have panoramic pictures taken from atop the 356-step high monket temple as well, where you can see the sun setting above the Annapurna.

Until next time, take care. To Mum, Dad, Nanna and friends, I love you very much.

Namastey,

Siobhan xo