Pashupatinath

Today was our second trip to the most holy Hindu temple of all of Nepal, a place we travel past everyday, a place that is always full of Indian and Nepali pilgrims. To look at it you wouldn't think it was holy. The river that runs through it is disgustingly filthy (and super holy). Non Hindus aren't allowed inside the inner temple, but I think most tourists come here to see the ghats, the place where Nepalese burn their deceased on wooden pyres.

It is very sobering, and bewildering. This haze in this picture is from one such pyre, where we could see the final charred remains of some person. How people can say goodbye to their loved ones surrounded by such squalor is hard to comprehend. Today, in the plastic bag strewn river, we saw a marooned coffin! The mind boggles...

Visiting such a place gives a lot of food for thought and highlights that we are far from home in a strange land...