Oct 6. A day trip around Kathmandu. Nepal

Today was a day for sightseeing, not something I was keen to do as I'm itching to be away walking, but heck it sure beats sitting around for another day. In the interim Rajesh had to finalise the passes for Walter and his companion soon to arrive, Elena. Tomorrow we will be off on our adventure, yay !

Our breakfast was in another restaurant with a grandstand position looking onto the Bhoudhanath stupa. The restaurant was closed, but the vendor soon opened it for us. Breakfast with Walter was interesting with his limited English and my Australian accent, and perhaps fatigue from the flight. We managed well though, I found that he was a retired mathematics teacher and that he does a lot of walking.

The attractions on offer were the monkey temple, King's palace, Paton and Hindu crematorium. These all cost a few rupees to enter of course and at loaded foreigner prices, still a lot cheaper that our Aussie equivalents at a figure between 500 and 750 rupees. We did this trip in a taxi, something I'd never dream of at home !

We started with the King's palace being proximate in the Kathmandu Thamel area. It dawned on me that I covered this with my roam around the town on the rickshaw yesterday. This time though, I paid to go inside the buildings. It is an interesting enough set of buildings comprised of the palace, a museum, religious places of worship: that are ranging in age from being very old to newer structures built in the early 1900s. The buildings often have ornate carvings on the doors and windows and their surrounds as well as statues.

You can go in to one of the buildings and climb high to get a grand overview of the subjects below.

We drove out west to see the monkeys and have lunch.

I enjoyed the monkeys at the monkey temple, keeping a wary distance from them in case they choose to attempt robbery. The temple had plenty of artifacts and guys dressed in red coloured robes to keep the history boffins and tourists happy.

We got a good workout clambering to the top of the temple with a multitude of stairs to ascend. Good practice for our trek.

Lunch was enjoyable at the temple. The next destination, Patan Durbar square was something of a hike across town.

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This place along with the palace was for those who liked old buildings of religious or Government significance. If it wasn't for the parade with the celebration of a young lady turning 100, I would have been bored.

Buildings, shrines, cathedrals all that man-made stuff I can only take so much. For me, mother nature and its natural wonders fill the world with joy and awe.

Don't get me wrong, I did have a good time today. I suppose it's the frustration of waiting for the trek. I don't mind the odd artifact or two in smaller doses, Thamel for a few hours and that is it. Kathmandu has an overwhelming amount of artifacts from statues, buildings, people and animals. These extended see all in a day trips are tiring.

Our final destination, Walter also was almost happy to call it quits too but we soldiered on as Rajesh said it was near Boudhha, ie on the way back. This was a Hindu crematorium situated on the Bagmati river near the airport. Curiosity I suppose. I've never been to an open air crematorium, and there was a burning today.. After seeing the funeral it added to my opinion that the rivers around the city are not for swimming.

First thing. This place was crawling with beggars and cripples of all ages. I got accosted by the most persistent hawkers trying to sell me trinkets. Do not show any interest whatsoever in any wares or you will be doomed ! You have to work very hard to keep your cool. Rajesh came to the rescue and shooed them away for me.

Yet for some, it is not a bother. Cleaning body and food utensils. Us westerners are softies !