May 2, 2006 - Visiting Temples and Stupas

It’s just past 6:00pm on May 2nd in Kathmandu and I’m sitting in the grounds behind the Hyatt Regency Hotel.  It’s a very cool and refreshing evening after a hot day of about 32C to 34C.

Our day began early which is easy to do when you are jet lagged.  We were all down having breakfast at about 6:00am.  Then right at 7:00am we walked a very short distance to the Boudhanath Stupa.  This famous and very large Stupa is in a very central area of Tibetan Buddhism that is famous throughout Asia.  We were lucky enough to visit it with my dear friend and fellow Albertan Frances Klatzel, who has spent most of the last 25 years in Kathmandu including 8 years when she lived in the Khumbu region and got to know the Sherpa people very well.  Her wonderful book and her work on the ‘Stories and Customs of the Sherpas’ has been a special part in how we help people get prepared to visit the Khumbu for years.

We visited the Stupa, watched the early morning activity, walked back to the hotel and then in the meeting room Frances showed us some of her slides and her work which you can also view here on the Berg Adventures web site [ click here to view Frances' article on the Sherpa People ]. After her show, Frances had to return to her office to work and shortly afterwards a friend of hers delivered signed copies of Frances’ book for all of us.

Ang Temba met up with us and we all had lunch together, Doug, Tim, John, Jackie, Doc, Jim Haskins, Jim Barr and Roger.  After lunch we wanted to see the streets of Kathmandu so we did something that really brought out the color and wonderful scenes of Kathmandu, we went to the Hindu temple, Pashupatinath.  We saw a totally different side of religion and culture than we saw in Boudhanath.  We always like to be photographed and hang out with the holy men of Pashupatinath and a really surprising thing happened.  As Jim Barr was sitting with some of the holy men, one of the holy men’s cell phone rang.  At first he seemed a bit embarrassed but he did take his call and we smiled and laughed.

Right now the team is focused on that very early morning flight to Lukla tomorrow.  We are leaving the hotel at 5:30am and we’ll be off to Lukla we hope very early in the morning.  Of course as you probably know Opus (Andy) and Erin will be flying into Kathmandu a few hours later where Shital will meet them.  Our staff will help them get prepared for their flight to Lukla a day behind us.  Soon we will all be together in the Khumbu.

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