I think Brian and I signed up for “canyoning” before we actually had a definition for it, but basically, you go rappel (or abseil) yourself down huge waterfalls. We used an outfitter called Borderlands, and not to plug for a company, but they were fantastic! Borderlands was great in helping set up our Annapurna trek, canyoning, and Gokyo Ri trek …super honest and informational. Okay, but anyway…when you go canyoning you get to wear awesome 40 year old purple wet suits with holes in them and giant body odor ridden yellow fleece sweatshirts that you shove into your wetsuit top. This stuff is going to be on the catwalk next season-just you wait.
Some of you know that Brian is a little leery of heights, but even he felt pretty comfortable. The waterfalls can be pretty slippery, but honestly the scariest part is when you unclip from one climbing rope into a second rope halfway while using handmade footholds. But our guide, Prim, was spastically great and the group of people we were with was also fantastic. The tallest waterfall we did was around 45 meters (150 feet!) and the water wasn’t too cold. I’ll let the pics speak for themselves, but we highly recommend giving it a try!
Brian's well worn wetsuit
Brian on one of the "training" waterfalls.
Hiking up to the waterfall sites
Wipe out! (actually this is what we were suppose to do, when we got down to about 20 feet over the water they told us to just let go of the rope and jump out backwards)
Brian gives canyoning a thumbs up.
This is only the second half of this waterfall-pretty awesomeTemples
Following our trek on the Annapurna circuit Brian and I headed back to Kathmandu to set up our canyoning trip and see the more cultural side of the city. We started with a visit to Durbar Square, where former Nepali kings used to be crowned, although this is no longer the case since Nepal’s king was given the boot a few years back. The square itself is plopped right in the middle of Kathmandu and is south of the area Thamel, where 99.9% of tourists end up booking accommodations, so it’s an easy walk to get there. The buildings are really great examples of traditional 17th and 18th century Nepali architecture. An earthquake in 1934 supposedly caused damage to some of the temples, so some of the buildings are not original, but we couldn’t tell the difference. A couple of high points of Durbar Square included the intricately carved wooden windows and “the living goddess” or Kumari.
The Kumari of Nepal is the bodily reincarnation the goddess, Durga, and must be a prepubescent, Buddhist girl of the Newar Shakya caste. The selection process is very strict. The girl who is chosen as Kumari is without disease or having shed blood, have specific eye shape, hair color, voice, horoscope, etc. etc. She also goes through a series of tests to evaluate her qualities of fearlessness and serenity since she is considered the goddess’ vessel. Anyways, this girl remains the Kumari and lives in a 3 story brick building in Durbar Square and performs ceremonies until she reaches puberty and becomes mortal again. If you see photos of a giant wooden chariot in Nepal, it is usually carrying the Kumari. Although you may look at her, no photographs of her allowed…unless you’re National Geographic, I guess!
Another well-known temple in Kathmandu is the Monkey temple, Swayambhunath (say that 10 times fast), and is actually a stupa; not a temple. True to name, the stupa has many entertaining monkeys that will steal your chips and sodas if you are not careful. And a piece of advice if you are ever wanting to go to this stupa…. if a cycle rickshaw offers to take you to Swayambhunath, just say no. The journey to this stupa is an uphill climb, so unless you want to sit on a rickshaw that is being pushed (not ridden) up the hill by a sweaty, laboring and uber-dramatic rickshawer-we don’t recommend it.
And if you aren’t tired out by looking at temples in Kathmandu, you can always head to Bhaktapur, a city outside of Kathmandu, which is an UNESCO world heritage site. You have to buy tickets to get in, and everyone in the town will initially offer to be your tour guide, but we just followed a walking tour recommended in Lonely Planet and that was nice enough. The city of Bhaktapur comes off as almost sterile at first because many of the temple areas are pedestrian only and are shockingly clean, but it is well worth a day trip to visit. I won’t bore you with more details on the temples. The kids in this city very much enjoyed the limelight, so we took advantage of it (photos).
Following our trek on the Annapurna circuit Brian and I headed back to Kathmandu to set up our canyoning trip and see the more cultural side of the city. We started with a visit to Durbar Square, where former Nepali kings used to be crowned, although this is no longer the case since Nepal’s king was given the boot a few years back. The square itself is plopped right in the middle of Kathmandu and is south of the area Thamel, where 99.9% of tourists end up booking accommodations, so it’s an easy walk to get there. The buildings are really great examples of traditional 17th and 18th century Nepali architecture. An earthquake in 1934 supposedly caused damage to some of the temples, so some of the buildings are not original, but we couldn’t tell the difference. A couple of high points of Durbar Square included the intricately carved wooden windows and “the living goddess” or Kumari.
The Kumari of Nepal is the bodily reincarnation the goddess, Durga, and must be a prepubescent, Buddhist girl of the Newar Shakya caste. The selection process is very strict. The girl who is chosen as Kumari is without disease or having shed blood, have specific eye shape, hair color, voice, horoscope, etc. etc. She also goes through a series of tests to evaluate her qualities of fearlessness and serenity since she is considered the goddess’ vessel. Anyways, this girl remains the Kumari and lives in a 3 story brick building in Durbar Square and performs ceremonies until she reaches puberty and becomes mortal again. If you see photos of a giant wooden chariot in Nepal, it is usually carrying the Kumari. Although you may look at her, no photographs of her allowed…unless you’re National Geographic, I guess!
Another well-known temple in Kathmandu is the Monkey temple, Swayambhunath (say that 10 times fast), and is actually a stupa; not a temple. True to name, the stupa has many entertaining monkeys that will steal your chips and sodas if you are not careful. And a piece of advice if you are ever wanting to go to this stupa…. if a cycle rickshaw offers to take you to Swayambhunath, just say no. The journey to this stupa is an uphill climb, so unless you want to sit on a rickshaw that is being pushed (not ridden) up the hill by a sweaty, laboring and uber-dramatic rickshawer-we don’t recommend it.
And if you aren’t tired out by looking at temples in Kathmandu, you can always head to Bhaktapur, a city outside of Kathmandu, which is an UNESCO world heritage site. You have to buy tickets to get in, and everyone in the town will initially offer to be your tour guide, but we just followed a walking tour recommended in Lonely Planet and that was nice enough. The city of Bhaktapur comes off as almost sterile at first because many of the temple areas are pedestrian only and are shockingly clean, but it is well worth a day trip to visit. I won’t bore you with more details on the temples. The kids in this city very much enjoyed the limelight, so we took advantage of it (photos).
Check out these hams - I particularly liked the boy in the middle who posed gangsta style with one lens in his sunglasses
Girl on a garuda-Bhaktapur
Ganeesha statue
Potters square in Bhaktapur - those are all pots/vases that are either drying or ready to be fired in the straw/dirt kilns
This would be great in the front yard at home
Picture of the Kumari (www.nationalgeographic.com)
Prayer wheels at the Monkey Temple
Temple tops Kathmandu
Durbar Square
Enjoying daily life in Durbar Square from one of the temple platforms
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