Listening to Raj speak reminds me of listening to Yoda sometimes. He starts to talk about an aspect of Nepalese life and veers slightly off and talks about the philosophy of it (or how he sees it). I feel like I'm sitting and listening at the master's feet. Soaking things in and understanding immediately what he's talking about. We really got an awesome guide.
We head down into old Kathmandu. We visit old palaces, temples, temples and even more temples. Raj says that Kathmandu has more temples than houses. He's serious. Every house has a room that is a temple. So, every house is a temple. But, not every temple is a house. Someone once told me (I think it was Holly) that you can only see so many temples before you are done. I understand that now.
Raj tells us that if we are lucky we may get to see the living goddess. Taking a picture of her is against the law. We enter into the viewing court and are told repeatedly that pictures are not allowed. Close the camera. I even get into the act by telling another tourist who is gripping his camera tightly that pictures are not allowed. I'm not going to be standing here for an hour while they keep repeating the same thing until people put the cameras away. Finally, she comes to the third story window to that we may worship her. She's six. I think that nowadays, it's less worshipping and more tourist viewing. After about a minute, she walks away from the window and the viewing is over.
Raj pulls us to one side and explains the story to us. Many years ago, there lived a King. That King could call upon this goddess and visit with her anytime he wished. However, no one could ever be allowed to see the goddess. All was good and well with the world. Until one day (of course) a lady caught a glimpse of the King and the goddess. The goddess disappeared and said she would never appear again. Years later, the goddess came to the king in a dream and told him to choose a female child. She would inhabit the child and allow others to view and worship her through the child until that child came of age. From that day forward, a young child was chosen to be the living goddess. The current one has been the goddess for three years.
After that we view a few more temples and then head back to the van. Next we are heading to Patan city, our guide's home town. We walk the streets of the town and go from temple to temple. Walking through alleys and squares. We dine at a small garden cafe. Barbara and I both have momos again. Barbara, however, not feeling very well, eats 2 of her 10. I eat all of mine and 3 of hers. Just a side note, 13 is too many momos.
In this cafe we find something that we have not seen since leaving the States: cats. Two of them. They hung out under our table and would eat anything provided to them. And I mean anything. They were eating momo pieces, bread (old and hard from yesterday's breakfast as well as fresh bread with butter), hamburger and chicken. Very friendly cats. Also pretty smart to hang out in a pet friendly outdoor eatery.
On the way back to the bus we stop off at a shop that sells singing bowls. Raj grew up close to the family that owns the shop. The family actually makes the bowls that they sell. They have been doing so for a few generations. We got a demonstration of 'bowl therapy' and each got to try our hand at playing them. Each of the three couples walked out with a bowl. Seeing as it was on my checklist of things to buy on the trip, I was thrilled!
Tomorrow, sadly, we head for home. We catch an afternoon flight to New Delhi. Then we have a 12:20am flight to JFK. From there, we have a several hour layover before we catch a flight home. I'm sure that we're going to be dead tired when we get home. It's going to be a long journey.
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