day 2 - Mankamna

 

taking the advice of the tour operator, we took the optional trip [read extra money], we took the day trip to Mankamna temple.

though the distance was about 100 KM from Kathmandu, the narrow and very average road made the journey appear very long as it took about 4 hours.

we also saw a few accidents on that toad – mostly trucks veering off the main road into the side ditch. that made the motorable [!] road narrower!

the ‘high point’ of this temple visit was also a cable car ride to reach the temple.

as the lonely planet calls it – “ an Austrian-engineered cable car soars up an almost impossibly steep hillside“.

the base of the cable car is on the banks of river Thrishul.

Since the car goes over multiple hills, it is difficult to guess how long the ride will be. looking from below, it appeared as if it was a small hill, but then, once you cross that, there were more..

on the way down, we saw the ‘babes of thrishul’ [waves of thrishul], pronounced the local way.

The temple is very old and till the cable car was set up, one had to walk about 3-4 hours to reach the temple – though just about 3 KM as the cable car travels!

the main temple is built the pagoda style.

it had been drizzling and the place appeared messy.

 

one more interesting aspect i noticed was that the temple still had live sacrifice practice.

i saw a cock being sacrificed

and a goat waiting for its turn. a more graphic picture not included in this post – in order not to hurt the readers’ feelings.

this was happening on the side – in a secluded area – and it seemed to be quite matter of fact for most of the pilgrims / visitors.

along the road noticed the three-door style of buildings, which seemed characteristic of the region.

it was also nice to see children getting back from school in a playful mood – maybe they did not have any homework for the evening.

on the way back, the bus driver’s assistant was responding to requests from some passengers to have a bio break, saying that when he buys a bus, a TATA bus, he would have a restroom and a smoking room also set up!

The first experience of the famed Kathmandu traffic jams [or slowdowns] in the evening added to the anxiety of some, due to which the driver was forced to make a brief stop at a public toilet.

little did we know about the [non] availability of such facilities during the rest of our travel..