When I realised I was going to be taking a walk up the hill to Swoyambhu, I thought I was prepared. I was not at all prepared. I was not prepared for the long walk or the numerous stray dogs and monkeys wandering around either. The trail begins down in Buddha park, a small park filled with three towering Buddha figures. A bit of advice, if you go be sure not to leave on a weekend (which my family and I had the misfortune of doing). Weekend brings a large group of locals and tourists alike which leaves you in an uncomfortable crowd of hot sweaty travellers so… be sure to go on a weekday when there’s less people. After reaching Buddha Park, be sure to take a quick picture and make your way behind the park to the trail that takes you up to the main attraction. Be sure to bring suncream and water or purchase some because you’ll need it.
When I went I did not realise it was so far. 365 steps to be exact. You follow the crowd, easy as that, everyone knew where to go it seemed, the crowd flowed in two directions; going or leaving, no in between (unless you were planning to buy souvenirs). Going up to the main door was a tiring feat in the heat of the Nepali sun. Once you get up to the base of Monkey Temple, you can take a break here to throw some coins into the wishing pond or you can keep going. Around here is where we saw the most monkeys all sleeping or minding their own business (most of them anyways). I learnt that if you don’t bother them they won’t bother you unless you have food which in that case you should hide. One little girl had the misfortune of having her ice cream and as we ascended the hill heard her cry. Poor girl.
365 steps later, we made it to the top of the hill to where the ‘centrepiece’ , the Swayambhu Mahachaitya is. This shrine’s mast is made of real gold and has stood for over thousands of years. It also survived the earthquake of 2015 and several others previous (what a well made shrine!!) If you go on a good day, you’ll find that from the top you can see the entirety of Kathmandu and some parts of the Himalayas mountain range. After we took in the views and took some photos, we concluded that it was time to go home. So we began to descend all 365 stairs and more. As we went we looked at the beautiful things on sale, carved statues of gods and animals, paintings of the city and singing bowls.
The day concluded with us returning home and watching the sun set and the lights of Kathmandu Valley come to life.
