I found more photos of the temple in Katmandu where they burn all the loved ones’ bodies.
Pashupatinath temple is a huge structure that looms over the banks of the Bagmati river, which ultimately joins the holy river Ganges. Hindu cremation ceremonies take place here on an industrial scale.
These colors are used in religious rituals. Stamps and candles are for sale also, at the bottom. What a POP of color!!
Just showing the poorness of the country — but thy still have those Internet wires everywhere!!
These are families mourning at the River Bagmati.
Here’s a smoldering body, before they place them into the river.
They had handiwork for sale, hanging from the cement wall. More wrapped bodies. The bamboo pallets the bodies are carried on. They are burnt up with the person. And the large photo is for the departed parent of the man with a bald head (except for the little patch on top). They shave their heads for a year as a sign of mourning. He has brought food to the shaman and will pay the holy man to be sure all the foods get to the dead person for their easy passage into Heaven.
I swore these were cellphone towers. In Florida, there is a law that you can’t just put up a tall, ugly cell tower — you have to camouflage it to look like a tree. And it is so ridiculous because it is so OBVIOUS that it’s not a tree! Well! I was wrong here. These trees are REAL. They are called monkey puzzle trees because even monkeys can’t figure out how to get to the top of these trees.
Cows, including these bulls, are sacred in Nepal and roam free. This one decided to come out of the fenced area and see what’s what. Also note the monkeys that hang around.
Maya Sherpa signed her book for me.
One evening before dinner, we had a slideshow by a woman who had been to the top of 8,000 meter high mountains many times. (24,000 feet) Her last name is Sherpa. You’ve heard of Sherpas helping climbers get to the top of Mt. Everest, and it has become a noun for mountain helper. But actually, it’s a race of Tibetan and Nepalese people who were born at the base of the mountain and were just natural climbers. They have larger hearts and bigger lungs in order to breathe in the thin air.
It was a very sad day for her because 4 people she knew were killed in an avalanche. I believe two were American. I found the news report as follows:
On Saturday, as reported, the US American Anna Gutu and her Nepalese mountain guide Mingmar Sherpa had died in a first avalanche. Their bodies had been found – unlike those of Gina Marie Rzucidlo, also from the U.S., and her Nepalese mountain guide Tenjen “Lama” Sherpa, who were swept away by another avalanche about two hours later. The search for the two missing people was suspended.
During the slideshow, I stopped her because I had to know!! “And you think this is FUN??” which got a laugh.
It was determined it’s more of a challenge and than fun.
I kept saying “I’ve GOT to read my itinerary more carefully before I leave home!” Turns out we were headed into a forest and onto a safari in a very bouncy and jumpy jeep. I was glad I brought these clothes and my industrial strength bra!
We took Buddha Airlines again on a prop plane. But Tom says it’s a jet prop. Don’t understand.
The next picture, for those of you who use baggage claim, you’ll get a kick out of the baggage drop here in the Chitwan Jungle. This was our luggage and they just tossed it over the rail.
And here is what I call “a hole”. No toilet paper, make sure you keep your pants and scarf out of the urine stream and try to aim into the hole. If the toilet handle doesn’t work, you can pour water into the bucket and pour some down the hole. It stank like old, old urine. UGH! …At least it had a door that closed.
Part of a bumpy 2 hour drive into the jungle.
We were in the jungle. Dirty rivers, roaming sacred cows, poor people and rice fields.
My ‘welcome to the jungle’ holy dot when we arrived, along with a cold washcloth and a glass of juice.
The jungle hut reminded me of some of my tents in Tanzania. There were 2 pair of old-fashioned flip flops in my room. I found them very convenient to smash the bugs I found crawling around. (only happened twice.)
The joke was Tom found a mouse turd on his bed. The hotel people said it was lizard poop. We couldn’t believe a lizard would have such big poop. During the second day there, I found two on my second bed and so did Maria. We never saw a sign of a mouse, so they may have been telling the truth.
I made the mistake of leaving the light on while I walked to dinner at the roundhouse. When I returned there were bugs galore around my door. I sneaked in by only leaving in one lizard — they don’t scare me. The staff were around to walk us to the dining tent. They don’t TELL you they are staving off wild animal attacks ….. but it IS tiger country. And sometimes in that jungle, I did smell like a gnu.
These little guys, lizards or something, were at the top of the the ceiling outside my front door. I’m sure it would freak out non-Floridians. I think they’re cute.
We were in our safari jeep when we basically got kidnapped by these women. They were dressed in red, their festival colors, and they blocked us from moving, and started dancing and singing. They didn’t stop until our driver gave them some money.
It was just for fun.
It had poured rain for a full 7 days for the last tour group. So even though we had to deal with the water and mud in the jungle; we were the lucky ones.
One of our first discoveries was a crocodile. Yup, follow the green line and you can see a snout and two protruding eyes.
Don’t you HATE photographers who do this to you???
We were in two jeeps and this is how we traveled.
We found this guy, a rhino, soon after driving into the jungle.
When you run the video, note that he knew we were there, by turning around and looking at us. Plus he was marking his territory, but peeing. Watch carefully.
Another video of the rhino.
Interesting they use bamboo as scaffolding for this water tower.
Rice gathering is all by hand in this area. There are some areas, with larger rice fields, that machines reap.
STILL have a lingering cough and runny nose. Those darn airports are going to kill me yet!!
Safe Travels!