Kathmandu

  Kathmandu, Nepal
Tuesday, April 17, 2007

The traffic coming into Kathmandu was appalling and i'm surprised we survived the fumes, i've since bought myself one of those fume masks which makes me look a bit like a doctor, but what the hell! Thamel, where we're staying and where we stayed last time, hasn't changed at all in 5 years.

Durbar Square Kathmandu

Still hanging onto the bakeries and cover band image! We've done the usual temple visits

Tim at temple

and this time got a peek at the 'Living Goddess', a very bored looking and dolled up teenager who lives in a small palace in Durbar Square and probably wishes she didn't! Of course we were asked to make a donation for the privilege of laying eyes on her!

Kali the destroyer

We finally managed to catch a Bollywood film here (Shaka Laka Boom Boom!!) and sat next to two robed monks in the cinema who seemed rather excited by the racy scenes and laughed heartily in the funny bits.Yesterday we visited the Hindu temple complex called Pashupatinath that we enjoyed so much last time.

Burning ghats

There was a Shiva festival on and oodles of dreadlocked and ash covered sadhus sitting around the place (as you'll see in Tim's photos).

Have some dreads !

Sadhu

Sadhus

Sadhus at burning ghats

There seemed to be a glut of burning bodies on the riverbank ghats and the rather disturbing smelling clouds of smoke soon became a bit overwhelming, so we headed of to visit the Bodnath stupa - one of the biggest in the world.

Tim at big stupa

Apart from that, we've managed to get our Bangladeshi visas here. Tomorrow we fly to the East of Nepal, hopefully avoiding strikes and any other problems on the Mahendra Highway. This time tomorrow we should be back in India!