When I got off the plane this morning, I was excited to start experiencing everything Kathmandu has to offer. What I did not expect, however, was that everywhere I went in Kathmandu people tried to sell me things. You literally cannot take one step without a taxi or a rickshaw trying to convince you to get in. This is how I got dragged to the Monkey Temple today. The ride to the temple was not smooth. The roads have a lot of damage done to them, including plenty of potholes and bumps.
My rickshaw driver was an interesting fellow. He enjoyed pretending he did not know much English for the first half of the trip, which is how I got stuck going to the Monkey Temple even after telling him I did not want to go today. Oh well...it was a great time.
On the way to the temple he stopped at a Hindu funeral. I later asked him if they were closed for the family, and he said yes, so I have no idea why he had us watch. I think this type of thing will happen often while I am here.
The Nepali people are very nice and hospitable, but they do not like taking no for an answer. I ended up buying prayer flags for 500 rupee because the woman selling them just kept talking about how great the price was until I gave in. I will have to work on just walking away from those situations.
For those thinking 500 rupee is a lot, let me clarify. 1 USD is 100 rupee, so everything here is very inexpensive. I got my rickshaw ride for 20 USD, and we were at the temple for about three hours. For those who may travel here in the future, be careful about rickshaw drivers. Mine told me it would be 500 rupee, but when I tried to pay, he insisted I give him 2000 rupee! I will be avoiding the rickshaws from now on.
Its been an interesting start, but it will most likely calm down once I meet up with AHV tomorrow night.
Welcome to Nepal.