Nepal day 17: Around Kathmandu

Submitted by maria on Tue, 19/12/2023 - 10:17

Today we will visit the Gokarna Mahadev Temple and the Kopan Monastery.

Gokarna Mahadev

It's a beautiful sunrise. We meet Maria and Sergio for a beer tonight and say goodbye, they finally fly to Ramechap today and have more than four hours drive to Kathmandu.

We have breakfast at our favourite place, Fresh Bake, we repeat the Darjeeling blue tea, it's brutal. We buy bananas at a nearby fruit shop.

Darjeeling tea

We take a taxi through the PATHAO app, the driver doesn't speak good English but Rabina the bakery girl helps us. Despite the fact that we had an agreed price of 700 rupees, she wants to haggle with us, we flatly refuse and in the end she takes us for our price.

Gokarna Mahadev

How to get to Gokarna Mahadev

To get to the Gokarna Mahadev Temple from Thamel you can take a taxi which takes about 25 minutes, or a bus from Ratna Park. The entrance fee is 100 rupees for foreigners.

The Hindu temple of Gokarna Mahadev is located on the banks of the Bagamti River, north of Kathmandu.

This Newar-style complex consists of a central building (for Hindus only) and other smaller temples around it where it's easy to see devotees praying their mantras at all hours. It contains a large Shiva lingam, but more important are the carvings surrounding the temple.

We find a woman putting rice out to dry who tries to explain in Nepali what she is doing, it is adorable.

Offering in Gokarna Mahadev

There are also monkeys in this temple, although they are much less aggressive than in Swyambunath.

We approach the river, where there are several groups of people making offerings and purifying themselves.

Behind the monastic buildings and inside a fig tree there is a small altar in honour of Ganesha with images and offerings.

Woman drying rice

You won't find many tourists in this temple, only locals, it's a quiet and little visited place. We met an Italian couple with whom the guard was quite rude and almost hit them with a stick for climbing on the base of the temple without taking off their shoes. However, an older Hindu man did the same and said nothing.

Puja en Templo Gokarna Mahadev

We set off in search of a taxi to visit the Kopan Monastery without success. We decided to use the PATHAO app again and quickly found one. You can walk for about 40 minutes to the monastery but it is a very hot day and we prefer to go by taxi.

Our taxi driver is a bit lost and google maps doesn't help him to find the way, which on the other hand is not easy to find and the road is in very bad condition. It takes us almost an hour to get what should have been ten minutes. We tell him to wait for us until we leave.

Kopan Monastery

Kopan Buddhist Monastery became famous for teaching Buddhism to Western foreigners and has offered annual meditation courses since 1971. The monastery was founded by Lama Thubten Yeshe who was succeeded by a little Spanish boy named Osel after he was proclaimed the reincarnation of the great Lama.

This monastic complex has a section for men and a section for women. It consists of several buildings surrounded by gardens, and its hilltop location offers exceptional views of the Kathmandu valley.

You are not allowed to enter the monastery in shorts or braces. They do let you in for a free tour, but if you are not staying at the monastery for a course, it is not worth the climb as you are not allowed to visit the monastery.

We return to Kathmandu and give the taxi driver a generous tip for his tenacity.

Kopan Monastery

In Thamel we eat at Yala café, chicken slizzer, chicken yala grilled, beer and water for 1,408 rupees. The chicken slizzer is served on a very hot tray while the chicken finishes frying, accompanied by noodles and vegetables, and is delicious.

Thamel

We spend the afternoon wandering the streets and doing some shopping. We stop at Mitra cafe for a rest. Thamel is the perfect place to lose track of time.

We have dinner again at French Creperie while we wait for Sergio and Maria to arrive for a few beers. They finally arrive and we have a great time, they tell us all about their adventure to get out of Lukla. They are wonderful people, we are very sad to say goodbye.