On Sunday 6th of July a group of VIN-volunteers had a sightseeing travel tour. It was organized by VIN as a part of their induction and the aim was to give the volunteers a chance to get a better understanding of the Nepalese culture. 21 volunteers took part to the sightseeing tour.
The tour was supposed to start at 10 am. Some of the volunteers however had some problems to get to VIN office because of the traffic jams so it wasn’t possible to leave exactly at the planned time. Eventually everyone was able to get there and around 10:30 the volunteers were on their way.
The main destination of the sightseeing tour was Patan Durbar square. VIN had arranged a local guide to show volunteers the temples and statues on Durbar square and to give information about them. Volunteers got to hear for example why the god Ganesh has an elephant’s head and reason for people almost always walking around the temples clock wise and not to go other direction. Volunteers also visited the golden temple and a small monastery. During the tour the guide told many things about the beliefs and traditions of Hinduism and Buddhism. There was also a possibility to do some souvenir shopping.
After Patan Durbar square the sightseeing tour continued to Bouddhanath which is an important Buddhist temple. First the volunteers had a lunch near the place. There was also a little time to see the temple itself. Unfortunately the Patan Durbar square had taken so much time that there wasn’t enough to actually visit the temple as people placed far away from the VIN office needed to get back and catch their busses.
After the sightseeing quite many people were a little tired. This was a result of a lot of new things having been seen and learnt during the day. It seemed that everyone had been able to find something that interested them.
Published on: 07 Jul 2014
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