Monkey Temple, Kathmandu

On November 20, 2014November 20, 2019 By Rick McIn photos, travelLeave a comment

The Buddha taught here. It’s said. Emperor Ashoka built a temple here in the 3rd century BC, it’s said.

But the earliest confirmed activity here was 460 AD.

It’s my favourite place in Kathmandu.

I visited 3 times in 2 days. (Don’t ask. It’s embarrassing.)

Dusk is the best time.

Swoyambhunath … is an ancient religious complex atop a hill in … Kathmandu city. It is also known as the Monkey Temple as there are holy monkeys …

… among the oldest religious sites in Nepal. …

Although the site is considered Buddhist, the place is revered by both Buddhists and Hindus. …

Ranked #2 of 65 Attractions in Kathmandu

see all of my high resolution Monkey Temple photos

the GREAT STUPA of Boudhanath is … GREAT

On November 19, 2014November 18, 2014 By Rick McIn travelLeave a comment

In 1998 I wrote: “The most rapt devotees at Boudanath, faces lit by butter candle lamp, aren’t the monks but Western women.”

That’s changed. Everyone, monks and Western students of Buddhism, stare at mobile phones in 2014. 🙂

Boudanath HAS changed a lot in the past 16yrs. It’s more commercial. More touristy. But still wonderful.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

I arrived at dusk. Did my obligatory circumambulation kora. Then picked the most appealing rooftop restaurant.

Stir fried chicken, mushrooms, bamboo shoots on rice. Medium pot Masala Chai.

The smell of burning juniper permeates the Stupa. Monks chant. Blow conch horns. And bugle like rutting elk through long horns.

The ancient Stupa is one of the largest in the world. The influx of large populations of refugees from Tibet has seen the construction of over 50 Tibetan Gompas (Monasteries) around Boudhanath. As of 1979, Boudhanath is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. …

Tibetan merchants have rested and offered prayers here for many centuries. When refugees entered Nepal from Tibet in the 1950s, many decided to live around Boudhanath. …

Next time to Kathandu, I’ll stay in mellow Bouda rather than the tourist ghetto of Thamel. 🙂

to Ethiopia – Land of BBC Documentary

On November 18, 2014November 17, 2014 By Rick McIn hiking, travelLeave a comment

I’ll be a tourist in Ethiopia Dec 1-14th.

The main goal will be trekking the highlands. The famed Simien traverse.

Ethiopia looks GREAT. 🙂

Land of Extremes

BBC documentary showcasing a glimpse of the natural serenity Ethiopia has to provide. From the magnificent, Semien mountains often called the roof of Africa to the lowest place on earth or the erta-ale which contains the only active volcano in the world. From Axum, capital of the great Axumite kingdom, hailed as one of the four super powers of the last millennium to the sturdy tribes men of the south. One of the best documentary about Ethiopia. Definitely a must visit place for every one.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

to Brazzaville, Congo

On November 16, 2014November 16, 2014 By Rick McIn gymnastics, travelLeave a comment

From Nepal I fly to the Republic of Congo (Brazzaville) Nov 23rd for a Gymnastics coaching clinic with my friend Guy Lavoie. I’ll be staying at Hotel Saphir. Visiting the Lesio Louna Gorilla Reserve on my day off

If you’d heard something about Ebola in Congo, know that it’s the OTHER Ebola. In the OTHER Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo (Kinshasha), formerly Zaire. There are (at least) two of both.

The Ebola River is in what is in what is now the DR Congo. But there’s been no new outbreaks of the OTHER Ebola in the other Congo since Oct 4th.

… many visitors claim that it’s the most pleasant city in Central Africa. …

more Brazzaville photos

KathmanFlu

On November 15, 2014November 15, 2014 By Rick McIn health & fitness, product complaints, travel4 Comments

I’m sick again in Kathmandu. 😦 Everyone tourist gets sick here, actually.

Catching up on the interwebs.

___ original post from Nov 2009:

I’ve always exalted the mystical, magical capital of Nepal.

Sadly, fact is, it’s a hellhole.

Everyone in the polluted city is sick. Sick with respiratory problems. And worse.

The rivers are trashed. I hear that cremations are being discouraged, but there are still corpses in the water.

Everyone you meet is coughing, horking and spitting. The valley holds air pollution.

Tap water makes people sick. There are electrical brown outs almost every night. Can’t they generate hydro-electricity in the Himalayas?

I studied the trash removal system. There is one, actually. But it’s hopelessly bad.

As in India, best case scenario is to feed your paper to a sacred cow.

The only “progress” I can see over the past 11yrs is that the first KFC / Pizza Hut just opened. Is that progress?

I want to blame the Mayor for not improving this city … but Wikipedia tells me there is no mayor of Kathmandu at the moment.

Why am I not surprised.

on traveling solo

On November 15, 2014November 14, 2014 By Rick McIn happiness, philosophy, travel1 Comment

Kristin Addis:

If you had asked me five years ago if I would ever travel alone, I would have immediately said, “No way. That can’t be safe, it must be lonely, and I’d get so bored.” Before I started traveling, I was scared of even the idea of eating dinner alone!

Then I started to realize solo travel is not something people do just because they can’t find a friend to go with — it’s because they got tired of waiting for the perfect companion and just go. Then, as they find out there are many personal benefits to it, it typically becomes the preferred mode of travel. …

10 Common Fears That Stop You from Traveling Solo

Kristin Addis is a former investment banker who sold all of her belongings and bid California goodbye in favor of traveling solo through Asia while searching for off-the-beaten path adventures. … You can find more of her musings at Be My Travel Muse.

REFLECTIONS ON NEARLY TWO YEARS OF SOLO TRAVEL

The White Tiger – Aravind Adiga

On November 11, 2014 By Rick McIn books, travel, travel IndiaLeave a comment

Not great, despite prizes and rave reviews.

The White Tiger is the debut novel by Indian author Aravind Adiga.

It was first published in 2008 and won the 40th Man Booker Prize in the same year. The novel provides a darkly humorous perspective of India’s class struggle in a globalized world as told through a retrospective narration from Balram Halwai, a village boy. In detailing Balram’s journey first to Delhi, where he works as a chauffeur to a rich landlord, and then to Bangalore, the place to which he flees after killing his master and stealing his money, the novel examines issues of religion, caste, loyalty, corruption and poverty in India. …

Amazon

I did like the vision of modernizing India as seen through the eyes of one of the poorest Indians.

But – as is the case in many prize winning novels – there is weirdness for the sake of being original.

The protagonist is writing to the Premier of China. Admitting to murder.

Why?

In order to be considered for the Man Booker. It’s stupid. Makes no sense. I won’t read his follow-up novels. 😦

Nov 2nd, 2014

On November 5, 2014 By Rick McIn books, hiking, travel2 Comments

I spent my 57th birthday tenting in a stone Yak shack at 4110m, close to the Tibet border in Nepal.

Next morning I scrambled up that gap towards Tilman’s Pass.

During the long, cold night cocooned in down and nylon, I listened to one of my favourite authors, Peter Matthiessen, read one of my favourite books, The Snow Leopard.

It’s his classic philosophical account of a November 1973 Nepal trek to Shey Gompa, Crystal Mountain. A spiritual journey.

If you wonder why I keep returning to Nepal, read Snow Leopard. Matthiessen is most eloquent on the joys and challenges.

Sex Lives of Cannibals

On November 5, 2014October 26, 2014 By Rick McIn books, humour, travelLeave a comment

J. Maarten Troost 2004

Hilarious.

At the age of twenty-six, Maarten Troost—who had been pushing the snooze button on the alarm clock of life by racking up useless graduate degrees and muddling through a series of temp jobs—decided to pack up his flip-flops and move to Tarawa, a remote South Pacific island in the Republic of Kiribati. He was restless and lacked direction, and the idea of dropping everything and moving to the ends of the earth was irresistibly romantic. He should have known better.

While his wife worked, Troost planned to write:

It would be a big book. Tolstoyan in scale, Joycean in its ambition, Shakespearean in its lyricism.

He ended up with this. 🙂

He and his stalwart girlfriend Sylvia spend the next two years battling incompetent government officials, alarmingly large critters, erratic electricity, and a paucity of food options (including the Great Beer Crisis); and contending with a bizarre cast of local characters, including “Half-Dead Fred” and the self-proclaimed Poet Laureate of Tarawa (a British drunkard who’s never written a poem in his life).

AMAZON – The Sex Lives of Cannibals: Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific

another book by Troost – Lost on Planet China

tourists love Hanoi

On October 31, 2014October 26, 2014 By Rick McIn travel1 Comment

I’m not sure exactly why.

But everyone I spoke with over 5 days found the city interesting and entertaining.

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Most backpackers stay in the Old Quarter, near Hoàn Kiếm Lake. Me at Little Hanoi Diamond Hostel.

Walking the streets of Hanoi is not for the faint of heart. As is the case everywhere in Vietnam, traffic in Hanoi is dominated by an incredible number of motorbikes, all of which seem to be making a mad, desperate dash for something just out of reach, all of the time. The simple act of walking can be intimidating for visitors, especially in the narrow streets around the Old Quarter.

There is no such thing as one-directional traffic in Vietnam. When you leave the curb, look not only left and right, but to the front and back. Even up and down would not be amiss. Take each step deliberately but resolutely. Patiently allow the motorbikes to pass. Don’t rush. Do not make any erratic movements. This way the drivers are aware of you, and can anticipate your vector (along with all of the other motorbikes). It may look chaotic, but be patient and pay attention when you’re crossing any street, large or small, and you will be fine. …

wikivoyage

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

The fastest growing city in the world has (surprisingly) aged well. Monuments and colonial architecture have been preserved, if many times off limits to tourists.

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