Deciding
When I said to Yan we’ve been too long in Kathmandu, we have to change something because it is too chaotic in here. He completely agreed with me and we started to think where could we go. While having a dinner in one of the local restaurants, we thought maybe we should ask the owner of the restaurant, probably he would suggest some nice place to visit.
We had an amazing conversation with such a kind, helpful and intelligent person. He asked what do we prefer and what we would like to see and summing up all the facts he said-
“I think the best place for you to go is a Namo Buddha Monastery which is located on the hill and from there you would see the bigger mountains, if it won’t be hazy. There are a lot of youngster monks, nice and peaceful place with a cozy New Guest House.”
Our eyes just lighted up after hearing this. That would be a priceless experience to go to this monastery. The price for all of this wasn’t so bad, we paid 90$ for 3 nights (for both of us). The room was absolutely gorgeous if we are comparing to other hotels or guest houses we have stayed. The breakfast, lunch and breakfast were included! And honestly, we didn’t spent a rupee for anything else, it just wasn’t necessary.
We are super thankful to that restaurant owner, he literally did organize our whole trip. Ordering a taxi, calling to a monastery to book the room, to find out the prices... he could say I DONT KNOW and that's it, go and figure out everything on your own. Luckily, he wasn’t like that.
Driving
The cab was waiting for us and as soon as we got in we started our 2 hours way to monastery. When we got stuck in the traffic we understood, that it’s gonna take a waaaay more hours to get to monastery, so we decided to take a nap.
The taxi driver woke us up and said get out of here, I am not going to wait...OKAY, just kidding, haha, he said that we have arrived, we took our bags and walked in to the guest house.
Going to the monastery doesn’t sound like something extreme, but you know we all need those breaks just for a soul..to do some yoga, to read a book or just TO BE.
Introducing afternoon
We arrived around 4 pm and when we got to our room we were quite satisfied of everything, the bed was cozy, the view was amazing and the sun was shining right in to our room. We had a bit of rest and after that we began our tour all around the monastery, just to see what we can see for the next day, where is a nice spot to take some pictures.
Dinner
The dinner is every day at 7pm and in my opinion this is the ritual everyone needs to experience. When more than 200 monks are praying about 5 minutes till they get the dinner on their plates is incredible. By the way, monastery is doing a very kind thing. Children who are from poor families and don’t have any opportunity to go to the school or even to have a food, the option is the monastery. They have clothes, nice rooms, healthy food and education as well.
Older monks have the big bowls of rice and the buckets of vegetables so they are walking around and serving the little ones..well it takes patience, for sure. And only when they finish praying they can enjoy their meal.
Actually, for 3 days we have spent there, we came to a conclusion that the food is very healthy and balanced for a young and growing organism. But in the first dinner we had ‘something’ similar like porridge but with beans, peas, rice, ginger and probably something else, haha. Sounds not so delicious, but for a surprise, it was tasty.
They finished everything in like 15 minutes, kids are eating very fast, haha. After the dinner everyone goes to their rooms and at 9 pm the door shuts and everyone is getting ready for a bed. Why so early? Because they have praying at 6 am and the breakfast at 7 am.
Day 2
The morning began at 6 am when we snoozed the alarm clock till 9 am :D we had soo sweet dreams, so we couldn’t wake up and missed the breakfast, haha. Gladly the lunch was at 12 am and we didn’t have to wait so long. By the way, for lunch we had a Dal Bhat, but with lots of vegetables, which is good for health as we know.
This day we decided to turn off all the electronics and just enjoy the time with monks, ourselves and nature. We visited the main temple to see where they are praying.. well I can say that it is very colorful and the Buddha statue is very big.
The photography was not allowed inside the temples, so we can show you just a little bit.
After visiting all the buildings we decided to join for the main prayer. We expected something really strong like all of the monks gathering in one praying and the sound of it would be amazing.
But expectations vs reality...A lot of young monks could not catch up the praying and that’s why it didn’t sound so good and kids were just playing and silently laughing. The whole praying lasted for 1 hour.
We left a little bit earlier to enjoy the sunset at the one of the stupa’s view. We were sitting on the rooftop, just talking about everything on the mind. Priceless!!
Last day
As we didn’t have any guides or monk who can show us everything, we were doing the the excursions for ourselves which wasn’t that good, because we didn’t know a lot of things and places we can explore.
We met one girl from Poland and she lived in monastery for a month or even more, she was a volunteer at the nearest hospital. We think, that it is an incredible way to know about the culture, monks or buddhism in general. Hopefully next time we will try this thing.
The last day in monastery was all about photography and video filming. Almost half a day it took us..the weather was nice - warm and sunny, but unfortunately, very hazy as always in Kathmandu. One of the monks said that it is not hazy and foggy during the monsoon season.
Tourists and volunteering
We met a lot of tourists at the monastery, they were mostly from Japan but not only, Us, Poland, Russia, India and many more. Everyone is walking around, having an excursions with monks, praying etc. Someone comes for 2 days, someone for 1 week or someone for 1 month, everyone is listening to their soul calling :)
If we are talking about the volunteering, then it’s more than possible. For example, as I mentioned the girl volunteering at the hospital, in that case you can teach the English to youngsters. Anyways, everything is possible if you really want it and the last thing remains is to put a little effort :)
Now we are looking forward to visit some monasteries in India. Just to see the difference and to dive in more for this.
At the moment we are in Kathmandu waiting for our visas to be done and then it remains to catch a bus to Varanasi and start our tour around the India, we are pretty much excited for it, can’t wait to be there at the 40 degrees of heat, hahahah.
Speak to you soon and don’t loose your dreams, be motivated!
Lots of love to you.