We met a small group of Japanese girls on the last day of our treck they were staying at the same accommodation in Puthana. They started from Pedi (our final destination) and went to Puthana then back to Pedi. They flew from Kathmandu a couple of days ago; changing their travel mode from bus to plane because they said there was a major landslide. Leigh and I decided not to risk the bus trip, so on our return to Pokhara we bought our flight with Jet Lite to Kathmandu. About Aus$70 each. This turned out to be a great decision, not only did we fly to Kathmandu in fifty minutes but we got to see the snow capped mountain ranges on the way!! A good move; site seeing on the way.

We shared a cab into Kathmandu with another couple. Disembarked into a restaurant for a Lassi, read up on where to stay from our trusted Lonely Planet India guide, asked the waiter where we are, he produced a map with restaurant marked. Perfect. We took a bike rikeshaw to where we wanted to search for accommodation. Voi la, a quiet hotel 2 minute walk from the heart of Kathmandu. PS except from the barking dog.

The trecking had caught up with us so we were going to take a laid back approach. We wandered around the busy markets and the ancient Durbar Square with it's fine temples.

The monkey temple was next on our itinerary, we decided to walk the several kilometers to brouse the local neighbourhoods, and then take a cab back to our hotel. There was the impressive Monkey temple on the hill. Oh no, please no more steps!! when we thought we had reached the top a French tourist who with great delight smirked 'you are half way there'. My legs were protesting, but as true troopers we soldiered on. There were monkeys everywhere, so the stair climbing was at least entertaining. From the top we could look down on Kathmandu. We had a go spinning the prayer wheels, admired the temples, strolled the market, and had a bite to eat at the restaurant and before we knew it was late afternoon. Back down the steps we went. The monkeys were going up to the temple (I'm guessing they get fed by the monks who live there, otherwise why would they be going up?). We continued going down as was an Indian lady in her lovely sari. A monkey ambushed the lady, jumping onto her thigh, and pulled out from under her sari a bag of bananas, running away with the bag and proceeding to munch on them. He wouldn't share the bananas with the other monkeys (although the odd banana fell from his arms and the awaiting monkey shoved it into his mouth before it could be retrieved). We had our fair share of entertainment with these monkeys.

The following day we caught up with Shaun (remember the American from our treck), we had dinner at the New Orleans Restaurant we chattered while we listened to the live Napalese musicians. We had a very pleasant evening and arranged to have dinner the following night.

We did a bit more looking around the markets, and bought a puffer jacket (down filled jacket) to take back home and a couple of calendars. That evening we met Shaun outside his hotel to go to dinner. We walked along the narrow laneways searching a restaurant to eat at. Dolce Vita looked nice, let's try that, we walked up the flight of stairs, first floor airconditioning or second floor open terrace. Since it was pretty warm and humid we decided on the first floor. We chose a good spot near the window. 'Hello Nella' a voice came from the next table. It was the Dutch guys from our treck. All five of us had spent the night at Gorapanni. Mitchel and Walter had not placed their meal order so we moved the two tables together, ordered our meals and had a good catch up and a photo taken together.

The following day; 27th September, we fly out of Kathmandu and into Dheli, again enjoying the great snow capped mountains of Nepal. Good bye Nepal.