Today was our day to do with as with wished, so....the group decided to hop in taxis and go together to Swayambounath, the home of the famous Monkey Temple! The Temple is found at the top of a big hill just 20 mins drive from the city centre, and hundreds of steps up! ( The first bit of exercise since I've been here, and boy could I feel it!) The hill houses tens of stupas, temples, statues of Bhudda and Goddesses, along with hundreds upon hundreds of flags and ribbons joining the tops of the temples to the trees - if only i'd brought my guidebook with me so I could know the history behind the buildings, and the meaning of the rituals which take place there. I'll have to go back another day! The group went for a yummy lunch at the bottom of the hill in a very friendly restaurant, though little did i know that my meal there would give me my first case of sickness - stomach aches and cramps which still have not disappeared, not pleasant to say the least!
The bus ride back was heaps of fun, making us all fall about over each other in giggles. Though we have now learnt that the young ladies in our group broke a social taboo in that we should not be seen laughing in public, especially when there are men around - i have a feeling this could be a taboo i break quite often, without even meaning to! By the end of the the journey 25 people had crammed onto a 12 seater bus, but we were told that if we weren't so large (how charming!) more people could have got on, and hence we would be charged extra - The Nepali speakers in our group agued however, that if we had been large Nepalis we would not have been asked the same thing - an argument that won the day!
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