The world's biggest stupa!

The alarm clock woke Marie, Line and I at 7.15 am, and we had a hard time coming out of the bed after a weekend with river rafting and high ropes (you are 10 meters above the ground, and then you have to go from tree to tree in different ways). We were going to help Sumi make breakfast. Today it was a Muslim holiday called Eid, so the food was a bit different. We got something that looked like donuts, but it tasted like a mixing between donuts and bread. There was also some kind of mush which tasted a bit funny. Otherwise, there was the same food as usual.
The focus of the day was movie making. We started out with some learning about the technical side of making a video, and we talked a bit about the competition MS and Politiken has made which we can take part in. Afterwards, we went out in the streets of Kathmandu to try to get some ideas to make a little movie that has to be done Wednesday.
The biggest experience of the day came in the end where we went to see Boudhanath which is the biggest stupa (a Buddhist temple) in the world. It was a place full of about everything. There were a lot of monks, tourist and regular Nepalese people. Around the biggest temple in the middle there were a lot of “wheels”, and the Nepalese people made them twist. It was all kinds of persons, who did it, and they were from small children to old people. We went into a little temple where we got some kind of incense stick and a monk told us about some figures in the little temple and about Buddhism. Next to him sat another monk and prayed. On the way out, the monk told us that we could give the praying monk some money. In a way, it ruined some of the sanctification of the place and turned it in to be a tourist attraction. Besides, the temple was surrounded by small shops with all kinds of souvenirs. Because of this, it was easy to see that it has become much more than a holy place; it is also a tourist attraction, and therefore, it is now a way for some people to earn money. We also saw some beggars, mostly children, who follow you. It was very hard to watch them, but we have been told not to give them anything, because there are some organisations which try to keep the children away from the street, and it will only keep them there if we give them money. Still, it was an experience that contained a lot. We saw some different people and for some of them, it seemed like it also was an experience to see us. An old woman came and said hi, and then she looked at Kathrine, pointed at her at laughed. It seems like we aren’t the only ones seeing something new.