Now that the motorcycle is in the warehouse of the airport, it is doable. It feels like my trip is on pause and I don't want that because there is a lot to see in Nepal.
About 16 km away is the town of Bhaktapur. Known for its 'Durbar Square' with temples, squares and narrow streets. In the taxi ride there I see how the city of Kathamandu is expanding at breakneck speed. Houses are being built everywhere and it won't be long before Bhaktapur will become a district of Kathmandu, I think.
The guesthouse where I will stay for two nights is right in the center and from there it is very easy to explore the town. It looks like an open-air museum and that attracts many tourists, school trips and engaged couples with accompanying photographers. I taste the local specialty: JuJu Dhani, cottage cheese made from the milk of water buffaloes. It tastes like a cross between cottage cheese and cheesecake. Delicious! Like cay, it is served in a disposable earthenware dish.
It is nice to be on the various squares, but after two days I have seen it all and after a sunny breakfast I take a taxi back to Kathmandu.
More precisely, to the Pashupatinath temple on the outskirts of the city. This is not accessible to foreigners, but the deceased are cremated on the bank behind the temple. Varanasi, in India, is also a city that is famous for it, but I had to skip it due to lack of time.
Like many Nepalese, I sit on the other side of the river to watch and absorb everything. It is a coming and going of families with their loved ones who have died. The lifeless, covered bodies are laid on the shore by the family and worshiped with flowers, water and money. Then the body is burned on a funeral pyre in a way that you do not see the body. Fortunately I am well in the wind because the smoke is suffocating.
After this impressive spectacle I share a taxi with three French youths, who happen to want to go to the Boudha Stupa, near my guesthouse. I show them the entrances to the monastery and the stupa, after which our paths split. At the end of this day with many impressions, I walk a few laps with the praying people at the stupa and I just enjoy the warm afternoon sun.
Through a mutual Dutch friend I got to know the Nepalese student Golden. After a few meetings, he invited me to go to the school where he spent all his childhood. It's a very important place for him. His parents live in a small village, 3 days travel from Kathmandu, and Golden attended this school from kindergarten until he went to college and lived far from home in a hostel and even with the principal.
Golden, his friend Khemu and I are therefore warmly welcomed and after a tour of the school we see how the students are sent to the classrooms neatly in rows and in a very disciplined manner and we visit a few classes. All students wear the same uniform: the youngest classes wear a kind of tracksuit and hat and the older classes wear a nice suit with a tie and blazer. Unfortunately we cannot visit the latter in class because they have exams today. Everywhere I come across cheerful and enthusiastic students and it really feels like a nice place where the students and staff really enjoy themselves. After a final chat with the rector, Golden, Khemu and I take the taxi back to Boudha, where we say goodbye to each other after a cup of coffee with a view of the stupa.
