Nepal Day 2 - Kathmandu

 It was an effort to stay in bed until morning, but we did our best to conquer jet lag. 

It was another day of UNESCO world heritage sites. After another good hotel breakfast, we took a taxi to Pashupatinath, a significant Hindu site on the Bagmati River dedicated to Shiva. Besides many stupas and temples, there are sites for Hindu cremations along the river banks. A number of cremations were in progress, and many visitors were in the temple (not open to foreigners). Some cattle, dogs, and monkeys wandered about.  People were picnicking on one side of the river near a number of astrologers waiting for customers. A number of sadhus in bright red and yellow clothes, dreadlocks, and makeup, called out to us as we went past.

After exploring the temples, we decided to walk to Boudhanath, the most important Tibetan Buddhist site in Nepal. We made a navigational mistake which added a couple miles to our walk, partly through small streets and partly along busy roads. We were glad to find a couple of pedestrian overpasses over the busiest roads.

After arriving to the Boudhanath stupa, we had lunch on the 3rd floor terrace of the Roadhouse cafe with a view of the stupa with its many flapping prayer flags. The square was full of Buddhist devotees. After lunch we explored the area, then took a taxi back to our hotel as a rain shower started. There was noticeably more traffic than we had experienced on our earlier taxi ride.

After some down time, we went out to buy some clean tshirts to wear (also a souvenir), and we found a shop, Juju, with local designs we liked. We took a break to rehydrate, then returned to our hotel for a trek briefing and to meet our trekking guide, Bire, and office trek coordinator, Raj. Both seemed great. Our porter will meet us in Lukla. Raj said that a lot of Europeans are cancelling their treks because their flights were through the Middle East, and the recent war meant their flights are cancelled. Sad. We head to the airport at 4:45am tomorrow, scheduled for the first flight of the day at 6am. We hope for clear skies!

After our briefing, we had veggie pasta at Forest & Plate, a 3rd floor restaurant. An odd looking cat took a shine to Ed and sat by him. We returned to our hotel to separate carry-on luggage from that which goes in our checked bag, weighing everything with a scale borrowed from the front desk. A few items and some laundry will be left behind. We are excited to start our trek.