Boudhanath Temple and Dinner with Friends
After a busy day yesterday we took a day to see one of the biggest sites in Kathmandu - the largest Buddhist stupa, Boudhanath. It was about 30 minutes from our hotel. We had a hired bus to take us to the site. It dropped us off and we had about 3 hours to walk around the upper part of the temple which gives you a view of the site and you are surrounded by flower garland and watched by the large Buddha eyes. Then we walked around the lower part of the temple, spun the prayer wheels and looked in several of the shops. We had a chance to visit the monastery and hear the monks start their noon chant with drumming and incense burning. We had a bite to eat on a rooftop café but we ran out of time and had to take our food to go. Our guide, Tej was very nervous because the bus was waiting and we had a bit of a walk to get to where it was parked. The late afternoon rush hour traffic was very crammed. The bus driver had a tough job navigating the crowded streets as we looked out the window at all the busy streets and sidewalks. We made it back to the hotel about 1 hour late from our scheduled time.
We quickly went to our rooms, cleaned up and then took two taxis to the house of Sunita and Kamal They have helped us throughout the past 3 years with our logistics and they are close friends. Along the way while stuck in some rush hour traffic Rick spotted a flower vendor and asked Jeff to jump out of the taxi and purchase some flowers before the light turned green. He almost made it - the vendor did not understand "keep the change" and he insisted on chasing down Jeff and giving him the correct change he was due. Back in the car we continued on our 20 minute ride. Sunita prepared a delicious dinner with appetizers and desert. We told jokes, stories and even showed off a few dance moves we learned. We went up to the roof top terrace on their home to see the Kathmandu skyline at night while Rick repaired the Bloomsky weather station. The view was very peaceful. At 8PM we had to return to our hotel knowing we had a very early wake-up call tomorrow We thanked them for a lovely evening in their home, said goodbye and the taxis returned to take us back to the hotel.