Travel Photography | Once Upon a Time at Swayambhunath Stupa | Kathmandu Valley | Nepal

© 2012 Wazari Wazir | Travel Photography | Swayambhunath Stupa | Monkey Temple | Kathmandu Valley | Nepal

The Swayambhunath Stupa is one of the crowning glories of Kathmandu Valley architecture. The entire structure of the stupa is symbolic, the white dome represents the earth, while the 13-tiered, beehive like structure at the top symbolises the 13 stages that humans must passthrough to achieve nirvana.

The site has two access points: a long stairway, claimed to have 365 steps, leading directly to the main platform of the temple, which is from the top of the hill to the east; and a car road around the hill from the south leading to the southwest entrance.

Swayambhunath (Devanagari: स्वयम्भूनाथ स्तुप; sometimes romanized Swoyambhunath) is an ancient religious complex atop a hill in the Kathmandu Valley, west of Kathmandu city. It is also known as the Monkey Temple as there are holy monkeys living in the north-west parts of the temple.

We arrived in Kathmandu on Saturday 10th November by Malaysian Airlines, they were just start flying out this route since July (2012) this year, before this Malaysian who wanted to go to Kathmandu, have to take either Singapore Airlines, Thai Airways or Royal Nepal Airlines to get there and all three of them is quite expensive for most backpackers, now we have Malaysia Airlines and also Air Asia flying those route directly from Kuala Lumpur to Kathmandu non-stop.

We were 30 minutes late,  landing at Tribhuvan International Airport Kathmandu due to heavy traffic but actually it is good for us, even though we were so eager to step on Kathmandu soil, the delay above the air is a quite a blessing, the pilot have to make few rounds above the Himalayan Ranges in order to get a clearance for landing and the good news is, the weather is so great and we really enjoy seeing the Great Himalayan Ranges for many times, for a bit longer.

Back then in Kuala Lumpur when we buy the tickets, we have already selected our seats number, we choose “F” seats, yes, the window seat, “A” seat is also a window seat but for us coming from Malaysia, we choose “F” seat because we know that the Himalaya will be on the right side of the plane and we make the right choice. My seat number is “5F”. So guys, especially those who wanted to visit Kathmandu and flying from Malaysia, choose “F” seat, so you will get to see The beautiful Himalayan Ranges from the sky and yes you can see the Everest as well from above, and yes the pilot will tell you that, “for those of you who seat on the right side will be able  to see the Everest”, which one is Everest, doesn’t matter, just sit back and enjoy the view.

Anyway, once we get out of the airport, we were greeted by one of Annapurna Guesthouse staff, or someone who work with Annapurna Guesthouse, one of them holding a card with my full name written big on it, yes I did book the hotel in advance and since they said that the pickup service is free, I agree for them to pick us up from the airport. (Maybe they will charge us later, when we checkout from the hotel).

Once we get into the hotel, which is located in Thamel, we didn’t wait long, we didn’t wasted a minutes, we get out of the hotel, get some meals from one of the Muslim restaurant there, and then took a taxi and head straight to Swayambhunath Stupa, the taxi cost us Rs300 and took more or less than 30 minutes to get there.

© 2012 Wazari Wazir | I Took This Shot Once We Almost Reach The Top of The 365 steps, Before The Ticket Counter (Left)

Actually once we arrived, I just think that the taxi driver are cheating on us, I didn’t see any sign of the Stupa, from what I saw from the magazines, website, I know that the stupa is quite big and tall and how come I didn’t see it then, so I asked the taxi driver once again, are sure this is the “right” Swayambhunath Stupa, and he told us, just get over the hill, and what a surprised then, we have to climb almost 365 step of stairways, I thought that the stupa were built on a flat land, I mean, we don’t have to climb any stairways but I was wrong, this is the first exercise for us before we start our trekking, I guess but we are not ready for this climb actually but we are here, so we have to climb.

We have to pay Rs200 per person to at the entrance, you can see the ticket counter there, on the left side of the last picture, the place was a little bit small actually and jammed pack with peoples, tourist, devotees and photographers like me. The widest lens that I’ve is just a 24mm prime lens and that lens is not wide enough for this place, so if you wanted to visit this place and wanted to get everything in the frame, I would suggest to carry an Ultra Wide Angle Lens UWA, for Full Frame Camera, I will suggest you to carry at least 16-35mm, 17-40mm or maybe 14-24mm lens and for Non Full Frame Camera, I will suggest you to carry 10-20mm or 11-16mm, that will do the job.

In term of photographic opportunity, lot’s of them, all you have to do is be patient and just wait for the right moment of for the “right subjects” to enter your frames especially if you wanted to take a picture of a monk  spinning the prayer wheels, you have to wait, and having 70-200mm lens is a bonus if that is what you want to capture but we didn’t bring 70-200mm f/2.8 with us because our mission here for this trip is to do some trekking in the Himalayan Ranges, Langtang Valley Trek to be exact, so 70-200mm will be a burden for us to carry around.

Hopefully, you will get some ideas visiting this place, what lenses to bring and be ready for the climbs, even though it is not a tough climb but just be ready, actually there are quite plenty of photographic opportunity along the stairways but we were a bit rushing to get to the top of the stairways because we didn’t have much times here and we just don’t want to get back to our hotel when it’s too dark, and don’t pay more than Rs300 for a taxi to get to your hotel in Thamel, maybe Rs350 will do but don’t pay more unless you are so generous.