March 27, Tuesday

March 27, Tuesday

Got up at 8 am to go down for breakfast.  This time I was directed to the 2^nd floor where the other restaurant is located.  Nice breakfast buffet.   By 9:30 I was back in the lobby to catch a taxi down to the piers where my tour was scheduled to leave from.   I asked the Concierge if I could take the metro / subway to get there, but he said I would be better off with either a bus, or a taxi.  Since I don’t know the bus system yet, I opted for the taxi.   The driver did not speak, or understand, much English, so I showed them the map of Kowloon, pointed to the piers, indicated # 3 and showed him the tour brochure.  He nodded his head and off we went.   I was able to follow the route he took on the map and we arrived at Pier # 3 at about 9:50.  I still had close to ½ hour to wait so I walked down the pier and took some pictures. 

 

 From the Kowloon side, pier # 3, looking out at  Pacific Club on Pier # 2.  In the background, the  tallest building in Hong Kong, on this side of the harbour.

 Looking across the river at Hong Kong island, the second tallest building.  (Supposedly used in one of the Batman movies, but also possibly for a James Bond movie with Pierce Brosnan....  so I'm told.)

Looking across at the north east corner of Hong Kong Island.

There was a security guard walking around so I approached him to ask about the tour.  He didn’t speak any English, but when I showed him the brochure, he pointed back to the entrance to the pier, so I walked back and waited under the sign that said “Pier # 3”.   And I waited.  And waited.  10:15 no sign of a bus, or of any other passengers waiting for the tour.   10:30 still no sign.  By then the security guard could tell that something was wrong, so he called over to the security guard for the hotel across the street and this guy came over.  He spoke a little bit of English so I explained my problem and showed him the brochure.   He said that I was at the wrong pier # 3; apparently there is another series of piers with the same numbers further down the road, completely out of sight.  By now it’s about 10:40 and I’m walking in the direction he pointed and go through an area that did not look pedestrian friendly, (trucks were driving into a building and since that is where the road went, that’s where I went)  but I didn’t have much choice.  On the other side, coming out of the building, I saw the “Star Ferry” Terminal and beyond that I found the other piers with #s 1 through 6 on them ! ! !   Well I still wasn’t sure this was the right spot, and I was obviously too late to catch the boat for my tour, so I started looking for a telephone.  Went into a building that looked like a convention centre (but turned out to be a theater (something like that National Arts Centre in Ottawa) and found a pay phone near the box office.  I called the phone number for the tour company and they knew who I was as soon as I said “I was supposed to take a tour this morning from Pier # 3”.   The lady was very nice and said that they had waited for me.  I explained what had happened and said that I was actually waiting at Pier # 3, it just wasn’t the right one !   She told me she would reschedule me for the following day and asked me to wait near the Clock Tower.  She would send someone to show me exactly where I should go the following morning so that there was no confusion.   How nice is that !   And isn't it also fortuoutous that I had noticed a Clock Tower just outside this Centre.   Within 10 minutes a young lady named Ivy showed up and we both had a good laugh when I showed her on my map, the Pier # 3 where I had been waiting.  She confirmed that the second one I had found was the correct one.   At least tomorrow morning I know exactly where to come to start my tour.

 On the overpass above the correct set of piers for my tour tomorrow.   The water front walk goes on for quite a distance.  I'll have to explore more later on.

The Clock Tower and the Hong Kong Culture Centre (similar to Ottawa's NAC)

I decided that since I was already in downtown Kowloon I should take advantage of it and do some walking around. I needed to get a replacement battery for the cheap watch I bought in South America. (It wasn’t safe there to flash around my expensive one.)    I walked down Canton Road, then turned on Peking Road. It took awhile to find a shop that could change the battery but I found one. From there I turned on Nathan Road (this is the main road that leads north up to Hotel Stanford where I am staying) and made my way north toward Kowloon Park. 
On the way there I spotted a Sony Store. My Sony Cybershot camera has been making some strange noises for awhile now whenever I turn it on or off. Doesn’t help that (1) I’ve fallen a few times while I was holding it and it's really banged up. (2) It’s been sprayed by waterfall mist a few times. (3) It’s 5 years old and I’ve taken thousands and thousands of pictures with it.    I figured that I should buy a replacement before it konks out and I’m stuck without a camera.    Long story short, I selected and purchased a replacement Sony Cybershot camera (better zoom, more clarity, more stability, etc)   After processing my payment, the guy wondered why I wanted a Sony, since there were other cameras available with better colour options. He takes down a Panasonic with Lumix lens, turns it on, turns on the camera I just bought and shows me the difference in colour; the one I just bought is all yellowy.   WOW ! So I decide to turn on my camera and compare all three. Guess what? My camera has better colour than the one I just purchased. He then explains what Sony has done to its camera line (sorry, I didn’t understand the techy talk) but bottom line was that I would definitely not be satisfied with the new Sony photos. So I bought the Panasonic, for double the price !   But I’m a fanatic when it comes to photos and these will be the memories I carry of this trip for the rest of my life, so it’s worth the extra money.

{Bob & Jess:  I know you will be disappointed that I didn't purchase something more professional, but I really need something I can just point and shoot;  no lens or setting adjustments required.}

 Interesting shops I found along the way.  If you have tons of money you don't know what to do with, the problem would immediately be solved in Hong Kong jewelry shops.  The artistic work is exquisite.

 Street scenes in downtown Kowloon

A few blocks later I found a mall with some restaurants and stopped for lunch.   A nice salad ! It’s been so long since I had nice mesclum mixture of greens.

As I walked up Nathan Street, I started watching for the street names and realized that I had reached the street where the park ends, but I hadn’t seen the park !   Turns out that there is a line of stores fronting the park hiding it completely from the street, so I back tracked and found a set of stairs leading up to the park.

 There are a series of public pools at the north end of the park, complete with waterfalls.  These were all closed for maintenance the day I was there.
It is a huge park complex and it turns out I was in the North section where the public pools are located.I checked the internet to find out that covers about 33 acres, and is the "green lung" of downtown Kowloon. "In 1989, it was rebuilt, funded by the former Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club at a cost of about HK$300 million." I also found out that the only forms of "legal" gambling in Hong Kong are Horse Racing, Football matches and the lottery. The Hong Kong Jockey Club is the only organization allowed to control these, and they give back millions of dollars of charity every year.

Some of the walkways in Kowloon park

 
 
 Orchids !  Growing off one of the trees in the distance.  Could not get close though so this zoom shot is all I could get.

 Beautiful flowers everywhere.  This one was particularly different, kind of whispy tendrils of pink.

 A duck pond  (taken with new camera... doesn't look that sharp !)

 Part of the park that links to other city buildings (taken with new camera)

Birds in the aviary.  They have to come up with better screens for these.  I took half a dozen pictures and all of them focused on the screens instead of the birds.  This is the only one that came out OK, because the bird was near the screen !

 One of the fountains in the park

Beautiful bird sitting in one of the bushes.  Too bad he flew away before I got a chance to try the same shot with my new camera and see the difference in quality !

I meandered through the park for over an hour, until I found the “Heritage Centre” a kind of museum, and went in for a visit. 

 The park road beside the Hong Kong Heritage Discovery Centre in Kowloon Park

 An early skull (? BC) discovered in the area, and the recreation of what he may have looked like.

 Ming Dinasty pottery shards

 An entire glass floor of it !   I was walking on top on Ming Dinasty Pottery !

Close-up of some of the shards.

 The rose gardens, just south of the Heritage Centre.  Unfortunately could not get close to these either since they were spraying insecticides, but this picture shows you how tall the rose bushes are and how big the blooms are.

 A look at the largest fountain from the hill above it.

 Beautiful sanctuary within the city.  No street noises invade here, only bird song.

And there were many sculptures in the park as well, this bronze one almost 3 feet tall, depicting sea shells.

I was at the South end of the park by then so I decided to make my way back to Nathan Road and catch a bus back to the Stanford Hotel. The concierge had indicated that I could take the # 1, 1A, 2, 6 or 9 that ran all the way up from the pier along Nathan Road up to the northern part of Kowloon where the hotel was located. It was actually a quick ride on a double-decker bus. I sat up front on the second level to take some pictures.

 View of Kowloon downtown streets from the upper level of a city bus

 Check out the scaffolding this guy is putting up.  All bamboo sticks tied with some type of fabric and tape.

Lots of high rises, lots of people.  Busy, busy place at all hours of the day.

It took less than 20 minutes to get back to Soy Street, and only a few minutes to walk back to the hotel. I couldn’t resist stopping at one of the restaurants nearby to grab a bite to eat since it was past 4:30 by then and I was hungry. The food was just OK however, so I’ll have to keep trying different ones in the vicinity of the hotel during the next week.   Where was the one with the rich aromas I had smelled yesterday?  

I decided to call it a day after taking my shower.  Time to catch up on publishing my blog.

March 26, Monday

March 26, Monday

My flight arrived at 6:30am.  I got through customs and immigration in record time; talk about efficiency.  My luggage was already circling around when I got to the carrousel.  Couldn’t exchanged my rupees at the airport, so found an ATM and got some Hong Kong Dollars. 

Now this was the fun part.  As many of you know, I'm a big fan of "Amazing Race".  (Well at least I watched it when I was at home; haven’t been able to see it during my travels.)  On one of the episodes where they had landed at the Hong Kong airport, they took the train to get to the city.  AH HA !   So instead of taking a taxi, I located the sign directing me to the trains, bought a ticket to Kowloon (that’s where the hotel I reserved is located) and off I went.   While I was on the train, I read the brochure about the trains (schedule and stops) and found out that at both the Kowloon and Hong Kong stations, there is a free bus shuttle service to major hotels.  AH HA !  Got off at the Kowloon station and found the area where the buses were leaving.  The man at the information desk advised me that although the hotel where I was staying was not on the route, I could still take one of their buses to get close to mine, and take a taxi from there.  Excellent !   There were 5 different routes available and mine was K5.  Only 14 minutes to wait until the next bus.  It all worked out beautifully.  Got off at Cityview Hotel and took a taxi to the Stanford Hotel on Soy Street.

Now I was arriving one day earlier than planned, but my luck was still with me since they had a room available for the night, and then I had my reservation for the next 9 nights.  Thank you my little guardian angels;  you took really good care of me.

I took a shower, put on a dress and went back to the lobby to ask about laundry services.  I’m in luck again !   There is a laundry only ½ a block away.  Took all my clothes, split them into to batches, and brought them to the Laundry.  Same day service; they will be ready at 3 pm.   I went back to the hotel to watch some TV and rest, but could not keep my eyes open.  I fell asleep until about 2 pm.   Decided I needed something to eat so went downstairs for lunch, Dim Sum, YUM !   Picked up my laundry, changed into some jeans and a sweater and went out to explore the streets around the Hotel.  Found a place to finally exchange my Indian Rupees, but could not change the Nepalese Rupees.  On the way back to the Hotel I found a bakery.  Oh oh !  I was good though, I only bought some unglazed raisin buns.  Still warm!  Double Yum.   Only 2 stores further there was a very small street that led to fresh produce stalls.  Beautiful fresh vegetables and fruit.  Bought some oranges and a few bananas;  will have to go back with my camera to take some pictures.

Oh,  Forgot to tell you that I also booked a tour for tomorrow:  Cruise in the harbour in the morning, and a tour of Hong Kong Island in the afternoon.

That was a good day !    Still, by 9 pm I was having a hard time keeping my eyes open, so I called it a day and turned off the TV.  Instantly asleep.

March 25, Sunday

March 25, Sunday

{Writing this on March 27, too bad I didn’t write this earlier since I would have realized that it was the 25^th on that day, and not the 26^th.  Read on and you’ll see why.}

Alarm clock went off at 4:10 am and I got dressed to go see the sun rise over the Himalayas.  At 4:30 I was in the car and we were driving out of Kathmandu.  We drove east only about 45 km, but it took 1 ½ hours.  The first 20 km only took half an hour, the other 25 km took an hour since we were driving up into the mountains on a narrow switchback road.

By the time we got to the “Mountain View” Hotel it was just starting to get light.  We climbed up 4 stories to the roof top and looked out onto a scene of ….clouds.  We could see the hills surrounding us, but that was about it. 

 The views from the roof of the hotel

 
It is light enough now to distinguish the terraces on the surrounding hills
We waited half an hour for the actual time the sun was rising. Still only see clouds.

The sun had risen; we could tell by the light in the sky, but still couldn’t actually see the sun, or the Himalayas. Even the deep valleys were still in the clouds. So much for seeing the sunrise over the Himalayas.

The sides where we should be seeing the Himalayas are still invisible.  

The Himalayas should be in the background !

We were supposed to spend most of the morning up here and in a look out tower about 3 km away, but there really is no point in wasting time here since it is obvious that I won’t get to see the Himalayas today.
So we start driving back down to Kathmandu, and I can at least now see the countryside we are driving through.

 On the way down, we finally get a glimpse of the sun.

 Terraced hill side for farming

 Winding road back down the mountains

Huge pine tree forest on the way down

 
 Potato fields.

 Crossing a small town

Looking back the way we came, and it is quite dark.  

 This is as good as it is going to get as far as the sun is concerned

On the outskirst of Kathmandu; some modern apartments
Got back to the hotel at about 8:30 am, just in time for breakfast. 

The courtyard of the Blue Horizon Hotel in Kathmandu

I wan't feeling very well and decided to go back to bed.  Slept soundly until past noon !   Got dressed and went out for a walk in the small streets full of little shops full of tourist goo-gaws.   Still didn’t see anything I would want to purchase as a keepsake.  Went back to the hotel and watched some television. 

Check out was at noon and I had not relishes the idea of spending 6 hours waiting outside, so I had paid for the extra night, since my flight was at 11:30 pm.

At 8:30 I left for the airport.  Got to the ticket counter and found out that….. TODAY IS THE 25^th.   My flight to Hong Kong is on the 26^th ! ! !    #*%^#&@#(%  (Insert F word here !)   Really have to pay better attention to the calendar.   Thank God it was a day “early”  and not a day “late”;  that would have been disastrous.

I had two options:  grab a taxi and drive back to the hotel and do it all over again tomorrow   OR   find out if I could get on tonight’s flight instead of tomorrow’s.   I got lucky and there were some extra seats available.  In fact I got really lucky because there was no one sitting beside me, so I had two seats to myself for this overnight flight.  I would at least be able to stretch out a bit.

Slept off and on throughout the night.

March 24, Saturday

March 24, Saturday

I was awake early because I had heard dogs barking off and on all night, but I managed to fall back to sleep until 8:30.  Got up and went downstairs to find a beautiful courtyard / patio where breakfast, lunch and dinner are served.   While I was having breakfast, the hotel “travel agent” came to my table to introduce himself.  I had mentioned when I checked in that I was interested in a city tour today.
Nepal:  Small country north of India where elevations vary from only 60 meters above sea level to the towering elevations of Mount Everest at 8,848 meters; all within a 150km distance.  The weather goes from subtropical to Arctic in a matter of hours.   
Kathmandu, Capital of Nepal, approx 1 million inhabitants, but it is actually larger than that if you include Lalitpur (Patan) to the south and Bhaktapur to the east. (Something like Orleans and Kanata used to be before the amalgamation to Ottawa.) At 1,400 meters altitude I did not need any of my altitude pills; strange, I always thought that it was in the Himalayas, but it is actually in a valley in its foothills.

By 9:30 I was off with the same driver who picked me up at the airport yesterday.  We were going to visit a series of Hindu & Buddhist temples as well as the historic part of the city centre. 

 Kathmandu street views

 

Gate at the bottom of the hill for pedestrians to walk up to Swayambhunath Stupa.

We started off with the “Monkey Palace” formally known asSwayambhunath Stupa, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Yes, there were “holy monkeys” everywhere, but thankfully if you don’t approach them, they don’t approach you. “The 2,500 year old monument is a holy site replete with symbols. The mound represents the four elements of earth, fire, wind and water. The 13 gilded rings of the spire symbolize the 13 steps of the ladder leading to Nirvana, the final salvation. The shrine is bedecked in colorful prayer flags. Pilgrims and tourists pass to Swayambhunath's holy premises through a path of 365 steps.

This is a huge complex situated on the top of a big hill within the western section of Kathmandu. Some people were actually walking up from the city street level. Thankfully I was driven to the top, but would probably have enjoyed walking back down the 365 (supposedly) step staircase in a beautiful park setting. As time was limited, my driver acted as my guide and walked me through the top of the mountain site. 

 Near the entrance, the smaller stupas

 Some of the "holy" monkeys

All the stone work is elaborately carved

 
 The first sitting Buddha on the site.

 And another

 And quite a few smaller ones

The main stupa and its entrance, called the Golden Temple. Painted eyes on four sides of Buddhist Stupas =“All seeing Buddha”  

 The entire site is packed with statues, shrines and temples

 This is the walkway from the bottom of the hill to the top.

There were prayer wheels everywhere in the main portion of the site.  As you walk in front of them you touch them with your hand to make them spin.  There are quiet ones however. 

  This is the large stupa again, and the cone on the head is in horizontal strips.  You really have to see if from further away to see the full effect.The largest stupa (renovated in 2010) is the star attraction with “Buddha's eyes and eyebrows painted on.   Eyes of wisdom and compassion.”  This is one of the oldest religious sites in Nepal, founded in 464-504 CE.  They use a different calendar than ours so I had to do some research to figure out how old by our calendar, about 2000 years.  Although it is mostly a Buddhist site, it is also revered by Hindus.

 Does this shape look familiar?  It has some hindu influence.

 Gold standards to go with the Golden Temple

More prayer wheels and a fancy lion / dragon guarding them.

 Views of Kathmandu from the top of the hill


 A patient little boy sitting beside his mother

 Statues within the museum

 A lying Buddha in the museum

The Golden Pheasant on top of a column

Beautifully decorated header on top of the door to the golden shrine

 Zoom on the details of the door

 More decorative details

And a zoom on the monkeys playing on the golden shrine

 Everywhere you look, there is a small hidden gem.  The bigger of these two statues is only about 8" tall.

 The entrance to the museum

 Just monkeying around !

 Down one part of the hill and up the other,  looking back at the smaller stupas

 And a lot of prayer flags everywhere

Another section of the hill with even more small stupas...  and monkeys

 
 Views of Kathmandu from the other side of the hill

 More lions guarding another temple

 He's whispering sweet nothings in my ear

This is the temple the lions are guarding... because obviously the dog isn't doing its job !

 From the other side of the hill, I had a great view of the Swayambhunath Stupa and now you can see the details of the horizontal stripes on the top of it.

 Almost back down to the car

Check out the eyes on this monkey; it has a haunted look

From there, we drove partway down the mountain and stopped at Buddha Park that appeared to be fairly new though I could not find any information about when it was actually built.  

 On the way down hill

 Buddha Park and its huge statues.  If you look carefully at the base of the Buddha statue in the middle, you will see that there are people standing there.  Gives you a bit of perspective about the size of these statues.

Chenrezig (Avalokiteshvara) “is the Bodhisattva of Compassion. A bodhisattva is an enlightened being who has decided to delay becoming a fully enlightened Buddha and who lives in a compassionate spirit life for the sake of all beings. He has taken vows to save all beings. With a mantra, Om mani padme hum! (Hail the jewel in the lotus), he tirelessly attempts to deliver all beings from suffering.” 

 Buddha

Guru Rinpoche, the second Buddha, or Precious Master, or Lotus Guru (Padmasambhava) is the founder of Buddhism in Tibet (640 – 842 CE)

 One of the details at the base of each of the three statues.

At the back of the three statues are shrines.  Note the golden grill at the top.

 This is what's inside.  Another Buddha.

 And yet another detail of the bases holding up the statues

 Giant Prayer Wheel

 Details on a miniature mountain

 The back of the Chenrezig statue.  Check out the gilded belt on his waist, and the decoration under the sauce he sits in.

 Leaving Buddha Park through its gate

 This is the gate at the bottom of the hill to walk up to Swayambhunath Stupa

We then drove towards downtown Kathmandu’s historical area known as Durbar Square. Since parking is limited in that area, the driver parked the car on one side of the Vishnumati River and we walked across the bridge to get there.

Garbage is dumped on the river side.  Have these people not heard about WATER POLUTION !  The smell was probably the worst in the more than 7 months that I've been travelling.  I actually had to block my nose and breathe through my mouth.

Durbar Square (Hanuman-dhoka) is also a World Heritage Site and contains some 40 different historical temples, shrines, buildings and statues.  It is also where the old King’s Palace is located;  a series of buildings built from the 1700s to 1908.  The palace is now a museum, but photos were not allowed inside;  too bad because I climbed up the 9 story Basantapur Durbar (built in 1770 all in wood !) and the views of the old downtown area was impressive to see from up there.

 One of the water wells.  Locals come and fill up there containers with water for their households.  No running water in these homes.

 Streets of Kathmandu.  Check out the wooden house here.  It looks like a boat.

Trilokya Mohan Narayan Temple

 New newer portions of the old Durbar Palace

 Some of the statues in the square

 Beautifully carved wooden doors

A portion of Durbar Square

 Chyasin Dega (1649)

 The entrance gate to the Hanuman Palace

 Within the courtyard of the palace. Old portion all in wood(1770).  Newer portion (1908) in brick covered with stucco.

 A closer look at the older portion of the 9 story building. 

Beautiful Dragon statue guarding one of the doors of the inner courtyard

 Another entrance to the palace, but this one was closed
Every temple, statue, building made of wood has intricately carved details on it. Beautiful artistic work.

 Durbar Square

 The palace buildings as seen from the street.  (New palace and old)

 Details on the older portion of Hanuman Palace

After about 2 hours, we moved on to the southern part of the city (Lalitpur area) to visit the Patan Buddhist temple complex where the Golden Temple is located (?12^th century?). 
“The city was founded in the 3rd century by King Veera Dev and has the distinction of being the home of the finest Newari craft. The finest Hindu and Buddhist monuments are scattered around but the most important monuments are in the square or close by. Other features like the Golden window, the royal bath of Sundaru Chowk, the Taleju Temple, and Keshab Narayan Chowk are worth visiting. The four stupas, located in the four cardinal directions, were erected by Indian Emperor Ashoka the Great.”


There were many temples within the Patan area

 
 Building of brick with beautiful carved wood

 Everywhere you looked and saw something made of wood, it was always intricately carved.

 Many huge temples all in a row

Decoration on top of one of the roofs
I only did a quick walk around here because there was some type of official gathering, people talking on a loud speaker, and huge crowds.   My driver for the day speaks very little English and I can only catch one word here and there of what he is trying to tell me.  I actually think he is speaking to me in Hindi half the time, but he is very nice and smiles a lot.
On the way back to the car, we stopped of at a museum / temple, that led to a courtyard

Entrance to the temple museum

Buddha in the courtyard

Back in the museum, a little girl and an apprentice were singing

The temple / museum

From there we drove north east to Pashupati Nath, a Hindu Temple complex where they perform cremations on a daily basis.  This one is on a hill as well, so there was a lot of climbing and descending huge staircases. “Pashupati Nath is considered one of the holiest shrines of all the Hindu temples. It is 6km east of downtown Kathmandu. The temple has remained the presiding deity of ruling Nepalese Royalty.  The two tier magnificent golden temple, with four triple silver doorways, is a unique example of the Nepalese temple architecture. It is one of the largest Hindu temple complexes in South-Asia with hundreds of Shiva Lingam shrines and icons Hindu Gods and Goddesses. The temple is spread out over a large area. The main entrance, for Hindu people only, is on the western side. Tourists may peak inside, or go on the other side of the river to have a glimpse of the temple complex from above.

 Bagmati Sacred River where cremations are carried out on this ghat.  There are actually two bodies on the other side of the river, being prepared for cremation.

 Looking across the river at the Golden Temple and other shrines.  Huge crowds here as well since an important person was being prepared for cremation.

Entrance to the Golden Temple.  This is as close as I could get.
Since non-Hindus are not allowed within the temple itself, my guide led me to an elevated area where I could sneak a peek down at the beautiful gold temple and statues within. 

Taking a peek into the inner courtyard of the temple

Beautiful golden bull within the temple.  Check out the hug beads around the bulls hump.

We were climbing up hill to reach the highest temple and were only about half way there when I told my driver/guide/escort that I could not climb the rest of the way.  He didn’t seem to understand what I was saying until I pointed up hill shaking my head “NO” then pointed back down the hill and said “GO BACK TO CAR”.   It was a good thing because when I caught a look at myself in the car mirror my face was very red from the exertion.  I must have downed an entire litre of water today.

It was only a short drive to continue to the “pièce de résistance” which is the Boudhanath Stupa World Heritage Site. “It is the largest stupa in Nepal and the holiest Tibetan Buddhist temple outside Tibet.  What Mecca is to the Muslims, this Boudhanath Stupa is for Tibetan Buddhists. Every year thousands of pilgrims flock here from all over the Himalayan region.  Since the arrival of Tibetan refugees in the 60s, this area has grown into a big city.  Boudhanath = Lord of Wisdom, also known as Boudha Bhagawan = Lord Buddha.  It has since become one of the most significant objects of worship in the Buddhist universe”. “One of the oldest and the biggest Buddhist monument ever built in the Himalayan Kingdom it is 36m in height. The stupa is unique with its three level, mandala style platforms. The structural features of the stupa are somewhat similar to the Swayambhunath stupa. One lap of the stupa is approximately 150 meters.”

 My first look at the Boudhanath Stupa

 The streets surrounding the Stupa

 A closer look at the "all seeing eyes"

 Another huge prayer wheel in one of the buildings surrounding the stupa

The main staircase leading up to the terrace roof of the stupa

 From the terrace roof of the stupa

 Looking back at the entrance gate to the area

 Tiny little child looking at the pigeons.  He / she  was mesmorized.

Boudhanath Stupa
A thick layer of whitewash covers the stupa and you can actually walk on its upper terrace.  Buddhists walk around the stupa in a clockwise direction while praying, at dawn and at dusk.

By 4 pm I was back at the Blue Horizon Hotel, ready for a very late lunch / very early dinner.  I ordered a vegetarian quesadilla which was absolutely marvelous; a combination of lentils, carrots, onions, green peppers, tomatoes and god knows what else, all finely diced into a thick mixture.  Quite delicious.

I was supposed to make an early night of it since I have to get up at about 4 am tomorrow to drive out of the city and see the sun rise over the Himalayas.  I ended up watching TV until past 11 because I could not sleep.