September 21st, 2008 6:56 a.m.

Ok, so night before last I ended up staying up till after 11 p.m. So Yesterday I woke up exhausted!!! Went down for morning puja and made plans to meet Anna and Lakpa back at the monastery around 11:45 a.m. for our lunch at the Hyatt.

Saturday’s are holidays around here and unbeknownst to me the café I started going to takes Saturdays off. So after wasting over a half hour waiting for them to open I ended up going to the other internet place. That is why no pictures went up. Kunga tells me that today is a holiday, but I haven’t heard that before and think maybe he’s making it up since Lama-la is gone. Hehehe. I really hope the café is open as it is so comfortable and nice and I can upload pictures!

So I can back to the monastery and was going to relax a bit before my lunch date when I remembered that I forgot to check on the statues of Yeshe Tsogyal that were supposed to come in today. So back to Boudha quickly. One shop wasn’t open and for the 3rd day in a row the other shop had forgotten.

Lunch at the Hyatt was decadent! Oh my goodness!!! I ate fresh, raw vegetable, salad, cucumbers, tenderloin, crème brule. I ate until I could barely move. We went to their buffet. The food was heavenly. In comparison to the U.S., if you were to go to a five star hotel and restaurant, I wouldn’t rate the food the greatest. But it was such a special treat after 3 weeks of very little raw things, definitely no salad, and discernable meat!

We rolled out of there and then headed to Pashnapati (no clue on the spelling). It is a series of Hindu temples with a couple that we couldn’t go into because we aren’t Hindu and not even white skinned Hindus are allowed in them!

This place was very different. It caught my breathe a couple of times (not in the good ways) and made my heart beat so fast. There was such a sense of feeding going on there. I almost asked to leave when I realized I was reacting in fear. I took a moment and thought about it. It was the undefined that was scaring me so I defined it. The overwhelming death and feeding (of things). I then was ok to be in this place.

This is where a grand majority of people are cremated. A river that connects to the Ganges runs right through the heart of this place. Ashes and sometimes bodies are through into the river. There are Hindu Holy Men all over this place. I didn’t take many photos of them as you are supposed to pay them for taking their photos and I didn’t want to spend all my money on that.

I was able to go inside the Kali temple at this place. There is a Hindu mandala on the ceiling. Our ‘guide’ (a person who gloms onto you out of friendliness but really wants money and a good sized amount at the end) was telling me that offerings are made to Kali outside the temple. Sorry, to clarify animal sacrifices are made outside of the temple. Then some of the hair and blood from the animal are stuck to the mandala. I took one photo of the mandala. I was having a bit of trouble breathing in this place. I hadn’t yet taken a moment to define things for myself. I told Anna about the mandala and she went into see and almost immediately came out saying “Om mani padme hum”.

Lakpa was nervous the entire time. Like almost agitated. Anna looked like she wanted to bolt most of the time. The eyes that followed us around were amazing. And not just human eyes.

To make a long story short, we began our exit when we caught sight of the Boudha Stupa in the distance and we all felt so much better at the end.

It was almost 4 by the time we got to the monastery. I was soaked as it had rained almost the whole time we were there, very lightly but still. I had planned to go shower, change my clothes and then get ready for evening puja. By the time I made it to my room, plans changed. I laid down and slept till 5 a.m. this morning.

Not the Kali, Ganesh, or Hanuman devotion I’m experienced with! I will have to tell you all more about it later. It was amazing.

Today I am heading into Boudha for the internet and look at those statues. Then heading into Tomel to purchase a thankga of the Medicine Buddha. And then I’m not sure. Maybe I will just come back and relax after that point.

Hopefully will blog more this evening!