An unexpected meeting, a planned meeting and a little bit of rain

After my breakfast adventure I set out to the Gokarna Madhev Temple because I had some time before my 2pm meeting with my research contact Anamika for this area.

It was only 5 km away but to be sure I found it, I paid the 400 rupee taxi fare to the temple and decided to walk back which was easy, if not smelly, from a constant flow of 2 stroke engines flying by, piles of garbage, open air meat shops, open air metal shops and so forth.  I was thankful for the handful of facemasks my mom gave me to wear in case of [insert airborne disease here]. She probably saved me a bout of respiratory disease and if not at least a sore throat.

The temple was… well it was a temple, like many others with a thousand year history featuring many deities made of stone and covered in red chalky stuff (Wikipedia: Kumkum, a powder used for social and religious markings) and rice offerings which the goats were happily snacking on.  Those who have lost their fathers often visit this temple on father’s day.  The guidebook didn’t really say why but this was a point of reflection for me as I wandered around the little buildings. 

Gauri Krishna & Shankar Gopini

Tree Shrine

There are several means of garbage management in 
Kathmandu: piled and eaten/decay; piled and burned; 
thrown in the river; piled and collected by trucks, 
then burned or buried outside the city.

Just in time to miss the rain, I returned back to the guesthouse to clean up and grab some lunch before my meeting.  I ate at this excellent little place 2 minutes from the guesthouse and packed my Kobo for company.  Interestingly, I was invited to join another solo traveller at his table, a seemingly lonely Belgian who was quite spiritual and baffled at the idea of atheism (his solution for that might have been suicide, he shared with me).  If I could stereotype the sorts of travellers I have encountered here, it would be two main categories: those who wear their hiking boots all the time and speak mainly of trekking, and those who wear prayer beads, linen and long hair no matter how old they are.  Being a solo traveller myself right now, I do find it easy and necessary to chat with other diners or people visiting the sites…  anyway, I appreciate someone putting themselves out there but I will probably be too busy to meet up again because the rest of the week is stocked with field visits. 

My meeting with Anamika went excellently however, and she has plans to take me to the children’s burn unit tomorrow (part of her job is to check up on projects her organization funds and here she delivers care packages to the children), and later this week 2 days of field visits to the farmer training projects for interviews.  I can only hope this all works out because that’s what I’m really here for!  

That's all for now-- two posts today because I have had four caffeinated beverages so far and I need a break from typing up my field notes.