Into the Kathmandu Valley we went. First was the Buddist temple lovingly called the Monkey Temple. We went to the top, but you can imagine how much the girls love monkeys after our last encounter, so after we reached the top, we went back down to the bottom. It was at this temple that the girls reached 1,000 dogs and counting in Nepal and India. They started counting at the beginning of our trip with more than one of our drivers helpibg the kids along the way. That's a lot of dogs!
Next was Bodhanath. A suburb with another Buddist temple where we turned the massive prayer wheel clockwise of course, and were blessed with a string around our wrists. The saying on the wheel is "om mani padme hum" which means "transform your impure body, speech, and mind into the pure body, speech, and mind of a Buddha." The monks helping us were very patient and kind. The temple had the eyes of Buddha watching us from the top, the 13 stages of enlightenment represented at the peek and the 108 ... well im unsure but its a holy number too. Sometimes its hard to distinquish nepalize buddism from nepalize hinduism, but tibetan buddism is quite different thoigh i'm not sure how.
Last and by far the coolest was Bhaktapur. Krishna was perhaps the best guide yet! (or maybe second best to our chitwan guide but it was close.) We were tired of temples and he (having two boys and three girls of his own) was amazing with the girls. He helped corral and carry and take pictures and instill patience.
First we ate Thukpa which is just as good as momo. It's similar to ramen noodles only way better. Where have you been all this time Thukpa! Next, we saw the baktapur dunbar square which was older than the one in Kat and just as cool. The kings palace had 55 windows for his 55 wives. Unlike the Kat dunbar square palace, it did not have a living god named the Kumari walking its hallways. She's a young girl who is the living god only until she menstrates.
Krishna then taught us the difference between the three types of temples: a pagoda is like the chinese temples only they don't flip out at the end, a stupe is dome like at the top like the first two buddist temples we saw, and chikota is torpedo shaped.
Last, we learned all about singing bowls. The ones handmade of 7 metals will make a vibrating fountain when played with water. I've never seen anything like it. Bhaktapur is also the home of clay pots so we made some of those too.
It was a HUGE day. The girls did great until we hit massive rush hour traffic on the way home on a Sunday! I knew Saturday was their day off, but I did not anticipate Sunday being so crazy.
After our big day we fell asleep at 7pm, woke up at 4am, and took a 7.5hour plane to Istanbul, a 10hr 11 min plane to Detroit (with only one lost bag). The layover between the two flights was short and we had to full out run. It was a really tough 18 hours but the girls could not have done better. I'm really proud of them. We are currently at a hotel in Detroit listening to the thunder, wondering if we will fly in this storm. Home sweet home. The kids were so excited to drink out of a drinking fountain and open their mouths in the shower!
Update - Ironically, the monsoon rains barely affected our trip, but the rain in the midwest cancelled our final flight from Detroit to Chicago. With no rental cars available, Eric took pity on us and we are currently being driven home.
Our hotel roof top in Kat and a tata car are thrown in the pics as well.
