1987 NEPAL, SRI LANKA-MALDIVE ISLANDS a trip revisited 38 years later

It was a nice group trip with Avventure nel Mondo in three beautiful and different countries with a large group made up of young and mature people. The first week was centered around the Kathmandu valley the capital of Nepal and the two neighboring sisters of Bagdaon and Baktapur founded by the brothers of the king of Kathmandu to rival him. All three are wonderful with their temples carved in stone and wood, with their statues and squares and outside the white stupa with the eye of Bouudhanath and the colored flags and then that of Swayanbunath with other temples and many monkeys and Dakshinkali dedicated to goddess Kali where worshipers wash statues, cremate the corpses of dead worshipers and make animal sacrifices to Hindu gods there is a street in the center with many shops where they sell all the mountain equipment, from tents to boots, ice axes, anoraks, etc. which hikers sell at the end of their mountain excursions in fact, it is the mountains that attract most of the tourists who flock to the country above all to climb Everest, the highest mountain on the planet 8840 meters, we saw it after a long bus journey arriving in Pokhara, a beautiful location with a lake and destination not only for Everest but also for the numerous treks that can be undertaken around the city and in the Himalayan mountains the second destination was the beautiful island of SRI LANKA, once CEYLON, a former English colony, a jewel that some say would be Eden on earth if it weren't for the poverty of a large part of its population and for the civil war that was underway there. time of my visit with the Northern Tamils ​​demanding independence We visited the capital Colombo, not very interesting, rather the beautiful Kandy further north, very green surrounded by tea crops, a lake and a beautiful temple that doesn't let you sleep because the loudspeakers broadcast their lullabies at all hours there are two interesting archaeological sites with reclining and standing Buddhas, Annuradapura and Polonnaruva, then the rock of Sigirya from the top of which the besieged survivors of a kingdom threw themselves into the void in order not to fall prisoners, climb a steep winding staircase and you can admire the Asian Monnalises painted on the walls another place to see is Golden temple cave or Danbulla caves with dozens of Buddha statues near Kandy third country visited the MALDIVES an archipelago state in the Indian Ocean, made up of over a thousand islands (20 are atolls) of which only about 200 are permanently inhabited, which stretches for 900 km the capital Male at the time of my visit was a village with low, poor houses and a beautiful white marble mosque donated by wealthy emirs, today it is a city with five-eight-story buildings that have filled all the space to the point that they create an artificial island next to it the inhabitants are observant Muslims with women with their heads covered but their faces uncovered our group leader, a Sicilian at his first experience, managed to win the stay on a tourist island at 100 dollars each, all inclusive and it was a real bargain because tourists who traveled with Francorosso and Ventana stayed on the same island and spent 2000 dollars each head, flight included the island was small, with the restaurant bar in the centre, the neighboring bungalows surrounded by trees and green bushes and at the edge the circular beach of very white sand and the transparent and blue waters rich in colored and non-coloured fish and many corals when it came at low tide the corals emerged for hundreds of meters and you could walk among them being careful not to hurt your feet and legs and above all at the tide which could soon return and submerge corals and the unfortunate we went on a boat trip to visit a fishing village, in the first days the sky was always black and the bulk of the group returned to Sri Lanka, as soon as they left the sun came out and lasted all week and caused great problems for those who exposed themselves because thanks to the sea breeze, you didn't notice how strong it was, I always wore a white t-shirt even in the water and I spread cream with a protection factor of 50, the very ones who ended up burned in the infirmary made fun of me, all swollen and sore while I had no problems still an unforgettable earthly paradise

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