Monday 18 April 2011

Telkot to Changu Narayan

We had one of my favourite days since we arrived here on Friday last week, walking from a tiny village, over a broad sandy ridge, through beautiful, clean air and small farming communities to a very old temple. And back. Good walking, rascals!






"Why are the chickens in jail, Mummy?"



This little kid was a couple of weeks old, and not especially keen on being petted, poor thing. Harv reckons that goats are lower than vegetables in Nepali society - they are sacrificed very often, and the vegetables do, to be fair, seem to be very lovingly displayed on the market stalls, compared to the down-hearted goats that are so often tethered to the butcher's stall next to their chopped-up mate.
So we gave this one an extra bit of love, even if he didn't want it.



Then had lunch with the scroungiest of dogs.


This is the queue for when the water is turned on. Makes me appreciate that even though the water situation in our house has been less than perfect at times, we are very priviledged.



Up the hill to the temple complex....


Try not to be over-awed by its peace and sanctity. Ahem.


Or ring that massive bell too many times.




At this point I will explain that we have had some rather unseasonal weather this year - rain in February (the dry season), and some crazy storms and chilliness during April. It's like Zeus has woken up after a couple of thousand years' worth of nap and started to throw some moves.... So we got very hot, then rained on, then steamed gently, then hailed on, then steamed once more. Hence the weird raincoats and shadows mixture.....




A last bit of moaning about who's going to sit where in the jeep on the way home, (um - we don't do car seats here. cringe.) then we're off. Back to the city. Sigh.