I Am Here

After a long drawn out journey, I have arrived in Nepal.

I thought all the airports in the Gulf States would be plush and wonderful. Regret to say, Abu Dhabi aierport is like a cattle market. It was utter chaos heppening on 2 levels .Maybe Bahrain and Dubai are the modern , state of the art airports I so often read about ,with the world's first 6 and 7 star rated hotels. I nearly missed the connecting flight because I was directed to the wrong gate!

I have been staying in Boudanath area, a Tibetan Buddhist stronghold, in order to experience some pure spiritual enlightenment .It would appear that I arrived on a very auspicious day by accident, the Nepali New Year.The place is teeming with visitors, worshippers and Buddhist monks of variuos grades, walking in clockwise direction around the stupa (Buddhist monument )endlessly. It is more so in the evening, a kind of evening walk, I suppose. It is said( not sure how true this is ) that all devout Buddhists have @131,000 rounds to do in a lifetime to achieve their goal, a bit like the Muslims who have one life time ambition to go to Mecca to pay their pilgrimage as good Muslims. I have done one round so far

Weather has been good so far.Its been sunny and warm.I have been able to walk around with just a tshirt.
The hotel is basic but clean with flushing toilet. The only fault is the towels. Just as well I brought mine as advised! The food is very salty, taking a bit of getting used to. My tummy has tried to rebel couple of times, but so far so good

A lot of visitors came to this part to undertake some Tibetan cultural studies including Dalai Lama's teaching. Some Americans staying in my hotel were talking about wanting to save the world last night. They were exploring the different ways of how they can achieve that, via singing around the stupa,or linking hands, or ask for special permission to go into the temple and chant, so it went on. In the end , they went for a lemon soda ! How sweet.

Being picked by Uma (my host whom I'll be staying with for the next 3 weeks ) at 11 today, thus ending my freedom here for a bit till John comes out on 23/11