Swayambu

We spent the day in Summer's part of Kathmandu today: Swayambu. Swayambu is mostly buddhist and in the center of the town is a giant hill full of buddhist idols. There are golden buddhas, prayers wheels (the more you turn, the better karma or good luck you will have), stupas (a place where buddhists worship), candles to light (again for good karma), prayer flags, and people selling birds to release (the more you release, the better your karma....but before you relase them all, Audrey, know that they are trained to fly back to the cage after being released.) As we were hiking up the mountain, I was holding a banana for Sophie. Before I knew what was happening, a large monkey jumped out of a tree onto my shoulder, stole the banana, and ran away to eat it. For a second no one said anything because we were too shocked...then we all laughed! Once we got to the top, we got to see views of Kathmandu. Kathmandu is called the gateway to the Himalayas. The Himalayas are a mountain range (like the Rocky Mountains) and has the highest mountain in the world...Mount Everest. You would think that since we are right here at the bottom of Mount Everest that we could see it since it is so big. We can't. There is too much pollution and dust here in the sky so the mountains are hidden. We did enjoy seeing all of the views though!