Swayambhunath Temple

Yesterday I went to Swayambhunath Temple in Kathmandu with Lara and Theresa (the German girls), near the city center. It is also called Monkey Temple because many monkeys reside there.

At 1pm, a taxi picked us up from the school and dropped us off at one of the entrances. Feeling a bit hungry, Lara and Theresa bought some bananas and oranges. They are available everywhere from street vendors. However, that was not a good idea - Theresa, holding the bananas, had just entered the temple area for two steps when a monkey approached her, jumped on her, and took the bananas, haha.

After the little shock, we climbed a lot of stairs up to the stupa. But it was worth it for the view. The stupa and the rest of the area were also very beautiful to visit.

At the top, we also met Anna (the Austrian). Prior to that, she had been at the Wheelchair Day in Kathmandu, organized by the organization she is interning for.

After we had seen everything (and I finally took a selfie with a monkey), we were pretty hungry. However, it took us another 25 minutes on foot to get to the city center. Luckily, a Nepali colleague of Anna was with us and she led us to a hidden and very cozy restaurant. There, I treated myself to a lot haha - a cheesy chicken burger (unfortunately a bit too cheesy), a banana lassi (really good, made with fresh bananas), and mango and coconut cream pancakes (which I shared with Anna). And all of that together only cost 8€.

Afterwards, we took a taxi home. At home, we skipped dinner and fell into bed pretty exhausted.

By the way, today I experienced rain in Nepal for the first time, and it was the first rain after two months of dry season. But as quickly and intensively as it came, it also disappeared.

Tomorrow is already my last day at school. Saying goodbye to the kids won't be easy for me...

On Saturday, it's also time to say goodbye to the family. In the morning, we will cook momos together before I am taken to the airport.

On the one hand, I am already sad that I have to leave the many lovely people here. On the other hand, I am also looking forward to the coming time - many different places, being more independent, not being bound by time, and hopefully meeting many new and nice people. So, everything has its ups and downs :)

Time goes by so fast. One minute we're saying 'Hi' the next it's 'Good Bye'.