I am so glad to be in Kathmandu. The 18 hour bus ride from the Indian border was definitely the most nerve-wracking bus ride I’ve ever been on. I prayed to God, Allah, Muhammad, Buddha, Jesus- pretty much anyone I could think of, that I would arrive in Kathmandu in one piece. Ohhwee and here I am!

Unfortunately, there were only two women on the bus ride to K-doo. One looked ancient and had very few teeth, and rightly assumed, spoke no English. The other, a middle aged woman, couldn’t really understand what I was talking about, and just looked at me strangely every time I brought up the subject of staying at her house. There were plenty of men that would have been happy for me to stay with them, but I decided that’s just a bit too sketchy for me.

The couchsurfing people I emailed have yet to respond, and sadly enough you have to be a monk to stay in a monastery.

But there is good news! Yesterday morning I went to the Boudhnath Stupa, one of the largest stupas in the world. The stupa is magnificent, absolutely breathtaking. A stupa is a mound of clay or other material that is covers some relics of the Buddha. Small prayer wheels surround the stupa, and there are a number of fifteen foot prayer wheels that people walk around, spinning and saying mantras.

As I walked around it, I met a family that had just arrived and were setting up for a ceremony of some kind. I talked to them for a few minutes, and they invited me to join them. When I asked what kind of ceremony they were having, a man said, “My mother died three weeks ago, and every week we go to another holy site to make offerings to her and wish her a safe passage”.

I couldn’t believe it. This was my second buddhist mourning ceremony in the last two weeks.

And here I am with the lama’s, the main man and the offering. When I asked why there was a flask of whisky to go along with the fruit, the traditional Nepali food and my donation of a liter of mineral water, Balram, the main man, said, “Ahh yes, my late mother was an alcoholic”.

I spent the whole day with them, taking part in their chanting, prayers and prostrations. I learned alot from the Gurung’s, who let me take part in their mourning ceremony. After the ceremony and offering was made, we ate the food and talked about how I would go visit the lamas at their monastery outside of town in the next few days. It was a unique experience, with such a warm welcoming to share their culture with me.

Some important lessons of the day:

• When prostrating towards a statue, try to be as graceful as possible when fully extending on the ground; avoid thud-age.
• When given a handful of rice to throw at key points in prayers, only throw a few pieces at a time; don’t throw the whole handful of rice on the first throw.
• A white woman taking part in a buddhist mourning ceremony, with lamas chanting, prostrations occurring often, and many family members present, receives a particularly large amount of attention from Nepalis and western tourists alike.
• There is absolutely nothing comfortable about sitting cross legged for long periods of time.

There are so many things I could write about Kathmandu-how it has quite possibly the coolest capital name in the world, up there with Tegucigalpa, Ouagadougou and Antananarivo. How there is so much cheap gortex here I need to really not go on a shopping spree. How the people are so welcoming and all smiles, and how the nightlife is a strange, strange experience. Live music next door to each other compete to bring in more tourists-just as ‘Welcome to the Jungle’ ends in one place, you can hear another place rocking out with ‘Tainted Love’ just a few doors down. And I’m not even touching on the upcoming elections, the Maoists, the continual damming of rivers that keep changing the nepali geographical layout, all the more serious subject matters.
What I do want to note, with intense excitement, is that I found a hula hoop! Sure it might be called an ‘exercise hoop’, but hot damn, I got to do some hoopin’!

This just made my day. For anyone who knows me, they know I love me some hoopin’.

Now I have to decide, in a bit of a rush, what I should do in Nepal. I could either do a three week Annapurna trek with a few friends, or I could do a month long yoga retreat, or finally, I could do an intense Vipassanna meditation course with no talking or contact with the outside world for ten days. OR, if you have a better idea of how I could spend my time, write a comment, let me know what I need to check out here in Nepal!