Here's some pictures from our alternative festive season so far. Firstly, there was my birthday on the 21st. We found out that Bodanath Buddhist Stupa, one of the KTM valley's World Heritage Sites, was always lit by butter lamps every full moon. Evidently, this is an auspicious date within the Himalayan Buddhist calendar. Turns out this coincided with my birthday, so we joined the march of pilgrims and the faithful in a number of clockwise circumnavigations. What an interesting people watching day this was. The usual tourists like us, Buddhist monks in their long maroon robes, including some Western monks too, Tibetan refugees with their hair in plaits coiled up on their heads and red wool woven through it. Some faithful even made their way around the stupa by making full prostrations on the ground. Everyone chanting mantras to themselves and swinging inscence too. Definitely a birthday to remember and very different to the previous 46! We ate nice food too and had a beer (third time in 3 months).
Christmas was a treat. We booked into the Newar Chen Hotel in Patan http://www.newachen.com/ Do check it out if you are ever in town. It's right off Durbur Square too.
This is a small boutique hotel made from a renovated Newar house. This is the local clan/tribal group of the KTM valley famous for the ornate window carvings. Oh what bliss, we didn't want to leave as this place was so lush and so comfortable and clean compared to our 500 rupees option back in Paknanjol! Here's a picture of Greg and I having breakfast on Xmas morning. Note down jackets - it does get chilly at night (about 2C) although not as cold as Blighty at the mo I know. More to follow on various adventures and activities before we leave Nepal on the 4th January for a night sleeping in Mumbai airport mmmmmm.
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