After the intensity of Tibet, I was happy to have some quiet days in Kathmandu. When I could, I spent early mornings and early evenings walking with perhaps a thousand other people around the Great Stupa of Boudhanath. It was the most welcoming crowd I’ve ever been in. I always felt uplifted.
The kora around the Great Stupa of Bhudhanath
Between morning and evening I usually wrote and did some shopping.
Getting cleaned up at the street-corner barber next to the Shechen Monastery
In five days I went on just two outings: to Kopan monastery, 3 miles away, and to the UNICEF World Heritage city of Bhaktapur, 10 miles away.
Pottery Square in the preserved town of Bhaktapur
On June 5th I began the journey home with a 90 minute flight to New Delhi, a fourteen hour flight to Newark, New Jersey, and a 60 minute flight in a puddle jumper to Dulles Airport in Virginia.
It was good to be home.
Plaque at Kopan Monastery
