Day 5: Kathmandu

After a much-sleepless night, still programmed for Greenwich Mean Time, we eventually hauled ourselves from our weary room and headed to our favourite eatery across the road, where we'd now become regulars. There, sat over the dish of the day, we discussed the plan of action of the day in order to prepare for our upcoming trek. Item one on the agenda: finding cash. Up until now, we'd somehow lasted with a threadbare supply of Rupees we'd ordered in prior to our trip, but now we very much needed a healthy supply to get us through our rural route to follow. Sorting this out after identifying the lowest fees by fiddling with a collection of ATMs, we turned our attention to visiting the British embassy, where we figured we'd drop them a 'tally ho' and doff a scone in their general direction to let them know we'd be doing our own independent trek in case anything goes wrong. The journey there was something of an experience in itself, honestly I could write paragraphs and paragraphs just about *crossing the road* alone. Yes, you too can cross a Nepalese road by following these simple and easy instructions:
1. Step out in front of the hoards of manic, speeding traffic.
2. Pray.
And so after experiencing my life flash before my eyes a mere handful of times, we reached the barbed-wire gates of the embassy, where frankly they couldn't give enough of a toss about our intentions to let us in (so we wrote them an email instead.) Bored with our chores already, we headed back in the other direction, stopping only at a fake outdoor gear shop in Thamel to find me a snazzy, new (and forged) arc'teryx hat, where we then marched onwards through the backstreets to Swoyambhu Mahachaitya (try saying that one three times in a row.)

Otherwise described as 'the monkey temple', this stupa is one of the most important and sacred pilgrimage sites in Tibetan Buddhism; an ancient complex of temples, shrines and monasteries rising high on a hill above western Kathmandu, with the wafting of incense and mischief of macaques meandering the site. Ascending the steps was like climbing the stairway to heaven, where at the top, there were swathes of colourful prayer flags draped between the trees and the view of the city stretched as far as the pollution induced haze would allow in every direction. We took some time to enjoy the surroundings and relative peace from the streets below, even joking that Kathmandu would be where someone from Mumbai might come for a 'relaxing getaway.'

With thunder rolling in, we decided to take our leave, evading the monkeys and opting for a much more direct route back to the hotel, where the remaining evening was spent finally eating some food that didn't involve rice, and buying up supplies as we brace for tomorrow's horror show of a bus ride towards Jiri.Read more