The Swayambhunath Incident

Christmas crept up on us this year. There are no decorations, trees, or rain to make it feel wintery at all. It’s frosty almost every night now, but apart from the smog, the skies are clear most of the time, and it still gets up around 18-20 degrees. The time is flying by as we enjoy the comforts of Kathmandu. We had some new housemates when we got back from Salleri, and Raven especially enjoyed the company of some girls closer to her age than to ours. The daily morning yoga class was such a treat, but everyone has left for either home, warmer climates, or to Pokhara for the New Year’s Eve Festival. We aren’t very tempted by a 6-8 hour bus ride each way, just to go party. It’s pretty quiet around Pepsi Cola, but we splurged on some Christmas morning treats that we could consume instead of carry, and decided to go exploring. Vincent and I had gone to Swayambhunath, the Monkey Temple, before he left for India, but Su and Raven wanted to see it, and I certainly didn’t mind going back. It’s a beautiful place with sweeping views of Kathmandu, incredible, ancient temples, and loads of monkeys running and climbing everywhere! Afterwards, we would have a fancy Christmas brunch somewhere in Thamel, the tourist district, before heading home for Christmas dhal bhaat.

  We brought a few stale peanuts to coax the monkeys in for some photo opportunities, as I had seen many people do on my first visit. The rhesus macaques thrive in the treed hillsides surrounding the giant, golden spired stupa, with pilgrims constantly leaving offerings for the many Buddhist and Hindu deities providing a steady food source. There are some security guards patrolling with bamboo canes, keeping marauding hoards of monkeys in check. They can be very aggressive, and will bite and scratch readily, competing violently for food. We found some younger, independent and gentle examples to feed our peanuts to. The older ones are grabby, but weren’t too aggressive, allowing the babies to pick their own peanuts from our outstretched hands. Everything was peachy, and after running out of snacks, we parted ways. Su had a geocache to hunt down, so we descended towards the forest behind the main complex. There is a wishing well along the way, crowded with people tossing in coins, soliciting favors from the goddess in the center of the pool. We separated, so Su could wander and Raven and I could find some more cute monkeys to feed. We bought some slices of coconut from one of the many vendors, and went looking for a quiet spot to sit. On the path down to where we could see some benches, an older hungry looking monkey started eying and grabbing for the coconut treats in Raven’s hand.  She charged forward, stomping, hoping to scare off the rude little monkey. Instead of running off, it attacked Raven, leaping up and bouncing off of her chest. Wow, those things move fast! It might have been trying to bite her face, because she had a small red mark rear her lip that went away after a few minutes. I had to get between them because it was still shrieking and baring its teeth.  It stalked us until we could blend into the crowd up near the pond. I don’t think monkeys are going to be on the list of Raven’s favorite animals. She was pretty shaken up, but there was no broken skin, so no need for the nasty round of rabies shots.

  We decided to hide out on one of the ‘roof top’ restaurants at Swayambhunath, and have lunch overlooking Kathmandu. There is no central ‘downtown core’ that you might expect, even from humble Nepal, just a sprawl of buildings and isolated agriculture that disappears into the smog. Su had a decent veggie burger(sorry no buns, just bread), Raven had a cheese burger that seemed to just be a patty of melted yak cheese. I was sensible, and stuck with the chicken fried rice. It’s pretty hard to screw up fried rice. Su and I split a Christmas beer and worked at cheering Raven up. We ended up just heading back home on the bus, to feast on our Christmas goodies:  Red wine, Pringles, Toblerone, and rice and lentil soup. We all went to bed a little deflated, I think. Our first Christmas in a very strange land, far, far from home just wasn’t the same. We were missing our friends and family, and felt a long way away, even though Skype sure makes the world much smaller! With most of the other volunteers away, Raven has been keeping busy with school work, I have been teaching yoga at the school, and Su is, as usual, omnipresent.  We have a few things to do during our last few weeks in Nepal. We still need to get our Indian visas, but at least after three tries, the first step is complete. We need to extend our Nepal visas, so we have time to look for tigers and rhinoceros on the way to Buddha’s birthplace in Lumbini. Also, we still need to get over to Patan, one of the jewels of Kathmandu, home to some of the finest temples in all of Nepal. Our time here has gone by so quickly, it’s hard to believe that we’ve already been gone a third of our time away. There are many adventures to come in the months ahead, and I’m sure we’ll look back on our time here as a chaotic introduction to the developing world. The Nepalese are friendly, humble, and resourceful, and will always remind me of the community and spiritual values that have somehow slipped away from our culture.