5 nights in Kathmandu

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We said a sad farewell to Steve O as we left Pokhara, as he's off doing a trek for a week or so before he heads back to Canada. The road to Kathmandu was mostly back the way we had come from Chitwan, at least halfway down the windy valleys and then up a lot more windy valleys with rushing rivers and terraced rice paddies and corn growing on the flat parts. As we got closer to Kathmandu the valleys got deeper and more spectacular, but we haven't seen any snowy peaks yet. The city is huge - we picked up our Nepali guide to help us get to the truck secure park where the truck will stay, then it took us ages to get through the city to Thamel to the Moonlight Hotel, where we stayed for 5 nights.

During the days in Kathmandu we ate at the Everest Steak House twice - a delicious steak for only 450 rp (about £4). We also had really nice thai from a couple of different places, and managed to find places with bacon for breakfast.

The first couple of days we didn't do a whole lot, as we both visited a doctor at the Nepal International Clinic who diagnosed me with Giardia, but apparently there was nothing wrong with Shane (!). He eventually ended up taking the same antibiotics as me and we both felt better by the time we left Kathmandu.

The city itself it pretty crazy - a lot like an Indian city but a bit less crowded. It rained at some point every day and the power dropped out at times too, but the city is always busy until about 10pm at night, when it shuts down.

One afternoon we walked down to Durbar Square, which is the centre of Kathmandu city. Tourists have to pay 300rp to get a pass to get in, but I had borrowed Annette's so we only paid for one. There are other Durbar Squares in Patan and other "cities" in the area. The square is full of temples - we were approached by a guide and paid him 500rp to take us around for an hour and tell us about each building. The square was so busy - they have a vegetable market each evening and also lots of traffic driving through, so it was pretty packed. The guide took us to the house where the Kumari or "Living Goddess" lives, and as we were standing in the courtyard the 4-yo girl who is the current Kumari came and looked over the balcony. She looked unimpressed, and we felt a bit sorry for her as she'll be kept here until she reaches puberty, then sent back to her family and probably never married.

The temples are amazing and look very old, although a lot of them were badly damaged in the 1930s and renovated after that. We were approached by a sadhu while we walked around who asked us to take a photo and then wanted 200rp. Shane gave him 20 and eventually he went away.

The following morning Shane was up and away take a flight over the mountains to see Mt Everest. He said when they first took off, there was a bit of cloud around and they could only see the very tops of mountains, but as they flew closer the clouds cleared away and they got a great view of Everest and the surrounding peaks. He got some great photos too. They were back at the hotel by 9am.

In the meantime I went shopping with Rosie. The shopping in the Thamel area is great! Lots of nice clothes and bags and bits and pieces. I tried hard not to buy much (honest!). That night was the Secret Santa party, where almost everyone got a present and a poem. A fun night and some great poems! I think some will be up on facebook at some point.

By the time the final day arrived we thought we'd better make sure we saw some sights. After breakfast we headed out into the street and found a taxi man who agreed to take us around for the day for 1500 rupees (about £14). First up we visited Swayambhunath Stupa, aka "Monkey Temple", which is up on a hillside overlooking the city. The stupa itself was on top of the small hill, and looks like the top of a white sphere, with a pointy bit on top that has the eyes of Buddha on the side. You walk around it in a clockwise direction, spinning the prayer wheels with your right hand. All around the stupa are other smaller temples, stupas and a monastery as well as a load of tatty souvenir shops. The area below the temples is covered with forest, and at this warm time of day the monkeys were mainly hiding but we did see a few around the place. There were prayer flags hanging from every tree and spire around the area. Next stop, Patan's Durbar Square. It's a bit smaller than the Kathmandu version but the buildings and temples are still amazing, only slightly less attractive by the guys hanging around trying to get us to let them show us around. We had lunch in a restaurant that had a roof terrace overlooking the square, but that took a while so we had to move on to the next stop.

The traffic on the ring road is really terrible but eventually we made it through to Bouda Stupa, which is the biggest one in Nepal (?). It really is huge and has a big circle of shops, resturants and monasteries around it. There were loads of people there including a group of european-looking people with peacock feather headdresses banging drums - very weird. We walked all the way around and spun the prayer wheels, including the huge ones that were inside the monasteries.

Kathmandu was a great city to visit and we still haven't seen everything if we ever come back. Our time here was slightly subdued since a lot of people are still ill or recovering, but we still managed to have a great time.