Farewell to the Himalayas

Our 08:25 flight from Kathmandu to Delhi gave us a good view of the City (home to 3 million) and then superb views of the Himalayas for practically the whole journey

We've seen the highest point on earth a few times this holiday and it never fails to thrill me. 

The layer of cloud below us look like water.

Apart from our 9 hr Delhi to London flight our amazing holiday is over.  At times it's been tough, mainly due to illness, but we have seen some amazing sights and met some lovely people.  I hope you've enjoyed following us around.

Nepal 6 - Last Supper

For our last meal, the tour operators, VJV had arranged a special dinner at a restaurant called Rum Doodle.  This is a favourite haunt for trekkers and apparently is full of memorabilia and atmosphere.  Except it has recently relocated because its lease ran out (rather than earthquake problems) and because we had a really early start for our flight home, at Krishna's suggestion, we went for dinner at 6pm.

Result - completely empty restaurant and no atmosphere whatsoever.

Anyway we knew that dinner was supposed to be "in the company of an Everest Summiteer or Sherpa" but what we didn't except was such a fantastic and memorable time.

Our Sherpa was Lakpa Rangdu Sherpa (people from the Nepalese Sherpa caste are often named after the day of the week; Lakpa =Wednesday, Rangdu is the family name and Sherpa the caste name).

He is 49 years old and looks at least 10-15 years younger and has "summitted" (the technical expression for reaching the top) 11 times, the last being in May of this year.  I can't remember exactly how many times he has attempted it but I know in 2015 the earthquake stopped him summiting and in 2014 there was a serious avalanche which killed 17 sherpas, so that makes it at least 13 times and I believe he only started in 2003. 

He was an amazing guy, pretty good English and a wonderful communicator. Still had 10 fingers (I counted) and 10 toes!

Unfortunately I hadn't bothered to take my camera as I'd expected it all to be a bit naff, I really wish I had now, although Krishna did take some pictures on his phone and has promised to email them to us.  He never did send any pictures through, so this is one from the internet of our Everest champion (courtesy of Grayson Schaffer).

Super way to round off the holiday.

Nepal 5 - Kathmandu

Our last day was a fairly easy one as we only had two sights to see; first another Buddhist Stupa, this time on the top of one of the few hills in the valley which gave us a good view of the smog ridden city.  

Officially called Swayambhunath, it’s commonly known as the Monkey Temple because of the many rhesus macaques that live there.

Compared with most other Buddhist places we visited this was a dump, it was very dirty and we were so glad we didn’t have to take our shoes off.  There was also a Hindu shrine sharing the same space and a load of tat shops.  Most of the “souvenirs” on offer are made to look like antiques, lots of brassware, big stones, knives, masks.  

The only interesting thing we found was a local game of 4 Tigers and 20 Goats which we bought for Millie and Evie, no idea if it’s any good, but the chap was actually carving the slate in the shop so we knew it was local.

As always monkeys are hard to resist, I was happily snapping away when they suddenly all dashed off so I didn’t get as many shots as I would have liked.

Then it was off to Kathmandu's Durbar Square which once again suffered serious damaged.  Interesting though the number of pigeons there and also cows just wandered around which of course the locals wanted to touch for good luck and in some cases actually feed.

This monk just standing amid the rubble and pigeons was quite surreal.

This Sadhu wasn't worth a dollar but I think he clocked me anyway!

From there we were supposed to take a rickshaw ride through the alleys to Thamel but having been in rickshaws before we declined on the grounds they were dangerous, uncomfortable, smelly and generally most unpleasant.  Instead Krishna took us for a walking tour in a non-tourist area which was slightly better.

What we could have ended up in.

We turned a corner into a small courtyard and were met with this random sight!

These hanged mannequins were actually quite freaky.

Cuttlefish flavoured crisps - mmmmmm, appetizing (not!)

I don't know what this old guy was all about but someone else was taking his photo so I did too and he was thrilled.

Nepal 4 - Kathmandu & Patan

After a late breakfast back at the hotel we went to visit another Buddhist Temple - Boudhanath.  Considering only 10% of the population are Buddhists (80% are Hindu) there are an awful lot of temples around.

This place was huge, the largest stupa in Nepal and originally built in 14^th Century it’s now surrounded by shops and restaurants and has a great feel to the place.

The eyes of the Buddha follow you everywhere.  

When we first arrived there was a ceremony going and there must have been 400/500 monks plus ordinary people all praying.  Unfortunately by the time we’d walked round the place and got to “free time” the service was over and all the monks were pouring out of one gate.

We think they'd probably only gone for lunch as a lot of monk regalia was left around.

We then visited the holy Hindu site of Pashupatinath where the dead are cremated along the banks of the sacred Bagmati River.  Once again this place was damaged by the 2015 earthquake and repairs/rebuilding is taking place.  This chap pushed a wall over with his bare hands.

As with most sites of this nature it attracted society’s unfortunates so we had to be quite hard faced or we would have been giving money right, left and centre.  I’m never sure when cases are genuine, especially when children are involved, but someone with only half a leg clearly isn’t faking it and I feel compelled to give them some money (especially as I’m prepared to pay a dollar for a photo of a Sadhu).

As non-Hindus, we weren’t allowed in the actual temple but from the opposite bank could observe what was going on.  The Hindu religion requires bodies to be cremated within a few hours of death and the son of the deceased plays a very important role (if there is no son, then the nearest male relative has to step up).  From what Krishna told us and from what we observed at a distance, the body is doused with an accelerant by the male relatives and then a flame is placed in the mouth of the deceased by this son, from then on other flames are then put all around the body and once these take hold, the body is covered with straw.  It takes approximately 4 hours to burn and then one particular part of the skull which remains intact is taken by the eldest son and placed in the silt of the river bed.  Eventually all the ashes are just pushed into the river – and they wonder why the river is dirty!

I’d been looking forward to seeing from Sadhus, whether they are real Holy men or just people who dress up for the tourists’ money I don’t know but I was happy to pay to photograph them.  I believe cannabis plays a large part in their lives.

We then went to a Singing Bowl demonstration.  These vessels are supposed to have healing properties and will cure all sorts of problems (headaches, back pain etc) simply by sound waves.

The most fascinating aspect was when he filled a bowl with water and just ran the hammer around the outside and the water immediately jumped about.

From there we went to the other old city of Patan and again the earthquake damage was extensive, particularly in the Durbar (Palace) Square.  It’s hard to imagine they’ll ever finish the reconstruction and the mess, dust and rubble along with the pesky motorbikes don’t make the place very pleasant to visit.  Most of these places were built around the same time as the Dzongs in Bhutan and for me there are similarities in their design but they hold none of the beauty of the Bhutanese ones, these are just stone or red brick and wood, no paintings or colour.

There are one or two undamaged bits

Old men doing what old men do the world over – nothing!

Candyfloss seller

Bead sellers