I’ve booked a lot of flights in my day, but I’ve never messed one up as bad as I did our flight from Delhi to Kathmandu. I chose the wrong airline (Air India has first class and permits carry on luggage; Indigo doesn’t); I chose the wrong flight (I missed the 11 AM flight and went with the 1:30 PM instead); I didn’t get us the right seats (seats on the left get a better view of Kathmandu than the right); I missed a step in the on-line visa process and had to get us visa-on-arrival visas. I couldn’t even buy soda from a soda dispenser because it wouldn’t take a Visa card and I didn’t have exact change in rupees.

But you know what? We had a nice view of Kathmandu and the mountains. It only took a few minutes to get the visa and we waited no more than 10 minutes for our bags. And we’re hear, safe and sound.

Our main purpose for being in Kathmandu, you may recall, is to celebrate the one year anniversary of Matri, the company our son Jeff formed with his long-time friends Julie and Rob. We were met at the airport by Jeff, Julie, Julie’s husband Dino, her son Zach and Zach’s girlfriend Peyton. With Reagan, Judy and me, that makes eight in a commodious van.

The rest of the crowd arrived from the U.S. today, so they’re jet lagged. The three of us are too, having to adjust to the 15 minute time change from India to Nepal. But you can’t just crash upon arrival; you have to keep awake and active.

So, first stop: the Pashupatinath Temple complex, a few miles from the airport. It’s a sprawling complex of Hindu temples along the sacred Bagamati River. It’s considered the most sacred temple in all of Hinduism. It is also the site of a dozen or more cremation facilities. When someone dies, their loved ones, led by the eldest son, prepare the body for cremation. The body is placed on a pier at the edge of the Bagmati and covered with wood and burned. Hindus believe in reincarnation, so the ceremony marks another birth in the soul’s next life.

Next, our driver took us to the Bhouda Stupa, a Buddhist temple some say is the largest stupa in the world. People walk clockwise around the stupa to meditate and beseech help from above. There were a lot of people out on this pleasant (80 degree) evening. The sun was setting as we made our way around the stupa.

Buddhism, while not a religion in that it doesn’t have a god, per se, but is rather a way of living one’s life to remove the shackles and suffering of normal life. Hindu practitioners (and, in our experience, some U.S. Christians) mix the two together.

The inscription on our Bhouda Stupa ticket reads:

After visiting this holy Pashapati area, your soul, body and

Wealth have become more holy and sacred

May your footsteps always be forward towards human well being.

We had dinner at a pizza restaurant on the walk path around the stupa. Good pizza and quenched our hunger.