West Bengal and the Himalayas: Nepal 5

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.