6. Pashupathi temple 7. Sorting day

6. Pashupatinath Temple and the Buddha stupa
Fortunately , James and I were starting to feel better today and managed to do a bit more sight seeing - starting off with the Pashupatinath temple .
The temple is situated on the banks of the river Bagmati in Kathmandu , the temple of Pashupatinath is one of the ancient places of worship. It is the oldest Hindu temple in Nepal, dating back to 400 BC.
Open cremation is practiced here and has been for centuries , it is the largest cremation area in Nepal. It is believed that if cremated here ,you would be reborn as human or animal in your next life. By having the cremation beside the river it means you had all the elements surrounding your death, fire, air, water, earth.

We were mortified to learn that 70 years ago in Nepal if the husband died early, the wife (whatever age) would be expected to burn themselves alive beside the husband being cremated. If she didn't abide the locals would stone her to death anyway. The president changed the law when his daughter's husband suddenly died at an early ago... Was very brutal to hear, especially that human sacrifice can still be found in some parts of Nepal.

James and I found this whole experience quite strange , but it was very interesting and eye opening.

We then headed to the Biggest Stupa in the world north of Kathmandu, another world heritage site. The Stupa was surrounded by quirky shops and nice cafes. We had walk around it a couple of times, buying a few bits along the way. It seems that at every Stupa/Heritage areas in Nepal, there is 50 million pigeons😂😂🇳🇵.

7. Today we had the longest simple processes of our life... Firstly we went to Immigration office to extend our visa, when we arrived there was literally zero structure, people everywhere... We weren't expecting much for the mayhem Nepal is, but still! Firstly you do an online form, then big que to line 1 for a stamp, then across to line 6 to pay and then back to line 3 for a sticker which took about an hour to print😂 it seemed all these processes could probably be done from one line, but anyway, we finally had the stamp.
We then headed off and got a sim card to last another 2 weeks, which fortunately was very straightforward .
Finally we had to send a parcel, we knew this wouldn't be simple. After finally finding a card box, cello tape and packaging up all our trekking goods, we got to the cargo drop to find everything is emptied and they package the parcel for you.. With a detailed report of everything inside, this is aired onto Abu Dhabi and they do customs again there and then goes onto the UK. After a very long process to send an already packaged parcel, we had a list of goods and me assisting in the repackaging 😬 we had successfully dropped off our parcel.
Quite a long day for things which should take no time. 😅 We still love you Nepal but you are crackers.
We headed to a lovely restaurant for dinner and had some pasta dishes, the best ones yet. I ordered a sizzling chocolate brownie for pudding and it literally came out on a hot sizzingling pan, burnt to buggery! 🔥😂 Anyway early night as its Chitwan Safari early tomorrow morning.Read more