Up the mountain to the monastery

Location: Kathmandu, Nepal
Local Time: Thursday, Oct 20, 2005

After Pashupathinath, we kept walking, going to Bodhnath, a nearby town with a significant Tibetan population. We visited the stupa there. Afterwards a light lunch, then a timeout in the internet cafe downstairs to wait for the rain to pass.

Something that continually strikes me as odd is the Buddhist monks we keep seeing. They have bags, knapsacks. They are not always wearing plain sandels. They have money, and they use the internet for MSN and e-mail. I see them riding around in taxis. Somehow this all seems very worldly.

Next, we kept walking, on to the Kopan monastery. This is a large Buddhist monastery located on the top of a hill. Other than the classrooms of children chanting, it is quite peaceful, and has a nearly 360 view of the surrounding area.

We started walking home, but it was dark, and beginning to rain before we had gone more than an hour. When the rain soaked through my hair and started dripping down my face (I hate that) we got a taxi and rode back to the hotel.