Reaching South Asia: Katmandu Adventures

A couple of days ago I had the great opportunity to go to Katmandu because I needed to leave my current country of residence every 30 days to satisfy the obligations of my visa. In short, I needed to make a visa run.

Let me just start out by saying that Katmandu was amazing. Some of the things that were different from here were the temperature (it was about 60 degrees in the day and it actually felt like fall), there were much fewer people, and the traffic was not nearly as bad. It was very refreshing!
We arrive late in the afternoon on Tuesday. We were going to meet friends at Boudha Gate, but when we got there we didn't find them right off. We saw the gate and decided to walk toward it. What we saw before us was simply amazing. There was a huge Buddha eye staring at us. Around it in the circle were many different shops/people selling hand crafts. Also, there were smaller temples around this big idol. I don't know if it was the cool, refreshing weather, the soothing music being played, or all the nice things to look at, but walking around that circle was so relaxing! Of course, it was sad too to see people going through rituals to worship Buddha, but I think I got caught up in the "newness" of it all and didn't think too much about that. After a bit, we left there and began an earnest search for our friend. Thankfully we began to walk to correct direction and found her. It was so nice to see her and her husband. They had lived in the same building I did during training. That evening we went to a "real" Tex-Mex restaurant, and it was amazing! Julie and I had been hankering for some Mexican (it is very hard to find here) and the chips and salsa and burrito hit the spot.
The next day we went to Tamel, which is probably 10 blocks of handcraft shopping. It was so much fun!! It kind of reminded me of Silver Dollar City with the music playing, little fun shops everywhere, and interesting places to eat. We found a tea shop, as well as a place that sold "fake" North Face (but it looks exactly like the real thing), jewelry shops, and many other beautiful handmade items. For lunch we ate at a little Tibetan place that was recommended by a local. The momos and soup I had was so yummy…not a hint of curry or spice!

Next we took a short trip to the "monkey temple." We didn't exactly know what we were getting ourselves into, but we knew there were monkeys and we wanted to go see them. The monkey temple is a Buddhist/H.ndu temple. Kind of strange to see Ganesh and Shiva and then right behind them two images of Buddha. There were many stairs…stairs so far we couldn't see the top. Come to find out, there were 365 steps up to the stupa (Buddhist temple). We started up them, and of course were greeted by people selling us various items and beggars. On one table, there were many H.ndu gods, Buddhas, and a crucifix. That speaks to the culture there and in most of South Asia…all are the same…make sure your bases are covered. Very sad. We finally made it to the top of the stairs and stared down on the city while we caught our breath. We saw one lone monkey. Slightly disappointed about walking all those steps to see only one monkey, we began to walk around the stupa. Just like at Boudha Gate, people were selling things around the tall idol. As we were walking around, we suddenly saw a mass of monkeys, probably at least 50 coming up a set of stairs right where we were standing. There were so many monkeys! They would run to the little idols and eat the flowers and fruit people had sacrificed to them. I wonder what the people thought who just sacrificed the fruit? Doesn't really make sense to me…? Then the monkeys would steel bananas from the banana seller and gobble them down. They can really eat a banana fast! Julie and I decided to go and I decided to buy a thing of crackers on the way down the 365 stairs to give to some of the children who were begging. I was handing out the crackers when suddenly I felt a strong tug on my crackers. I raised up my arm and found a pretty good sized male monkey attached to my cracker sleeve. I thought, "I am not going to let the monkey take my crackers. They are for the kids." The monkey let go when I shook my arm and I had the fleeting thought that this monkey was going to attack me for my crackers. Thankfully, he did not, but ran away instead and I continued to hand out crackers to the children.

When we reached the bottom of the stairs, we saw two boys that had been visiting with us sooner. They were hungry so we took them to a fruit stand close by and Julie bought them some fruit. I asked them to sit while they ate and we would tell them a story. Julie told the story of the bleeding woman. After she was finished, I told of Zacchaeus. I had told that story earlier in the week when I was doing a devotion before school, so it was fresh on my mind. I really like that story for many reasons. First being it shows howÁC can change a person's life. Using that theme I was able to share a short testimony of my life. Secondly, I love how ÁC knows where Zacchaeus is, knows his name, and then has the power to save him and change his life. The boys, plus another lady listened intently. At the end I tried to share a quick salv@tion plan, but they weren't ready for that step yet. Before I left I have them each a butterfly my grandma had crocheted and sent with me here. I explained how a butterfly changes from a caterpillar to a butterfly and ÁC can change your life like that too. He said that he knew some C-ians and got food from them. He also said he would pr@y to ÁC. Please ask that ÁC will reveal Himself to these two precious boys. Ask that they would remember the stories we told them and want to have a friendship with ÁC.
That evening we had dinner with our friends and ate the "forbidden meat." Pork sausage never tasted so good (except for what Mom makes.) After that we relaxed and drank tea. It was so nice to just sit and enjoy doing nothing!

The next day we went to a huge store (the closest thing to Wal-mart I have seen in South Asia) and got a few things. Our great find was Heinz Ketchup! The ketchup here has a funny taste, so we are super excited to have normal ketchup! We returned that afternoon (we saw the tops of the Himalayan mountains poking through the clouds while riding the airplane. They were absolutely gorgeous!) and were pretty exhausted. Airports in third world countries wear me out!

Below are some pictures of our trip.