After a good night sleep (yeah right!) we’re off to another day of exploration. Today, Julia is our guide (a first)! We stroll through animated streets, it smells incense, dry fish, spices… We see a lot of stray dogs, people making offerings at the many altars, bikes honking their ways through crowds of people (a good honk is a must here), some are sipping on some sort of fermented milk called “lassi bandhar” (we are not adventurous enough to try some ourselves). Then we head to Durbar square, a square with many temples. We have barely entered the site, the rain pours. So we take refuge under a temple, accompanied by smelly goats who are better sitted than us. Côme take the opportunity to feed them some leaves but Nepalese goats are picky eaters.
After the downpour and a brief visit (we were a bit disappointed by the site), it’s our turn to eat. We stop in a small restaurant. The interior design is top notch! There is a frozen wallpaper… We just hope the food is good. And it is! Well, for Julia and Doo at least because food in Nepal, is not at all Disneylike. Côme tells us: “Here, the only thing that is not spicy is water!” and then “Look Doo! (showing a man eating at a table behind us) He even got a drop on his forehead the man, so much it’s spicy what he’s eating!” And indeed, by the end of his plate, the gentleman must have lost 2L of water… So we buy bananas to Côme so he can eat on our way to another temple.
When we arrive at the temple, Côme is delighted, there are monkeys everywhere! Doo on the other hand looks at Julia and tells her: “Really?! You bought a full bag of bananas just before getting to a monkey temple?” We still vividly remember a woman being extorted food by monkeys in a temple in Cambodia. Julia smiles: “Oops! I had forgotten…” You know, it’s a trial period for her guiding us, one can’t think of everything, right? Doo decides to hide the bag of bananas under his shirt as he notices a monkey staring at the bag with envy. The temple is located up high on a hill and once there, the view is rather nice in spite of the clouds. We want to take a beautiful picture and since there are almost no more monkeys, Doo pull the bag of bananas out of his t-shirt. Two seconds later, a monkey jumps on him and tear a banana out of the bag. Doo just got extorted…
On our way back, we pass by a hairdresser that seems to be alright. It’s been three weeks since Doo is in dire need of a haircut so Julia convinces him to go. The result is: a trendy haircut and an energetic massage to finish it.
Today, Côme:
Did not understand: why he couldn’t pet the monkeys, even the little ones.
Learnt: that there were temples in forests.
Loved: the banana theft.
Julia:
Did not understand: why many Nepali people are not nice to dogs even though they are buddhists.
Learnt: how to pray with the praying mill.
Loved: the banana theft and Doo’s haircut at the Nepalese hairdresser.
Doo:
Did not understand: why the most beautiful temple was way cheaper than the other ones.
Learnt: to be constantly vigilant when one carries a bag full of bananas in a monkey temple.
Loved: to distantly exchange with local people (through hand gestures).