Return to Kathmandu

As I type this post, I’m sitting looking over a desolate hillside at 14,750 ft. waiting until tomorrow morning, when we set off at 0430 to cross the Larke La Pass, at 16,751 ft.  This is the view from our (unheated) shed:

But I’m getting ahead of myself – After we flew back from Bhutan into Kathmandu again, we went on a day tour of areas in the city that we had not explored on our own.  Our first stop was the Boudhanath Stupa, the largest in Nepal and one of the largest in the world –

We had a nice breakfast in a restaurant overlooking it –

Our next area to visit was the Pashupatinath Temple, one of the most revered Hindu places in the world.  According to our guide, many Hindus try to make a pilgrimage here at least once in their life.  It was a huge complex…

… that became very crowded in places -

Also included in the complex was a crematorium…

… where we watched one family…

…send their recently departed member on to the next life –

(as usual, to watch the next video, open this post in your browser by clicking the link at the bottom of the post)

Our final place to visit was Patan Durbar Square.  We had seen the Kathmandu Durbar Square (Royal Palace), and this one was in a neighboring enclave –

There were numerous temples…

… and buildings originally built in the 1600s (but rebuilt over the years due to earthquake or fire damage) –

The actual palace grounds had been turned into a museum -

Now the next day, we set off on an 8 hr road trip to the west…

… through the Nepali countryside covered in terraces…

… and got to see rice planting –

It was actually early in spring that we arrived, and there were few fields planted and even fewer blooming plants.

We drove on rough gravel roads…

… until they literally ended in this town of Machha Khola, where we spent our first night –

As I was doing my yoga (to keep my back limber enough to withstand hiking) out in the common ground of our “tea house” (read rustic hostel), these local girls wanted to have their picture taken –

Their smiling faces are a good place to end this post.  I’ll continue our trekking adventure in the next one.