Arrived in Kathmandu last night after a very long trip in the air: from Vancouver to Seattle 45 mins, then 16 hours to Singapore, with only an hour to get to our gate for the 5 hour flight to Kathmandu. Quite tired on arrival but Ali had applied for our tourist visas prior to leaving Canada so we were able to avoid at least one long queue! Outside the airport Subas, the driver was waiting for us and dropped us at our hotel where we had a pretty good sleep. This morning we met Bhagwat after breakfast who introduced us to our tour guide Badri for the day around Kathmandu. Badri and Subas took us to four cultural heritage sites: the Sayambhu UNESCO World Heritage Site (Monkey Temple), the Hanumandhoka Durbar square (including the residence of the living goddess who is a Buddha descendant – the current child is only 3 years old and will serve 10 years before returning to her family), the Shree Boudhanath Stupa (massive prayer shrine and solid dome and 13 step steeple illustrating the levels of enlightenment), and the Pashupatinath Temple (and Hindu crematorium). So much interesting information from Badri about Hindu and Buddhist traditions and beliefs! (Eg three human instincts people must work hard to overcome: greed/desire, anger, ignorance)
Tomorrow we fly to Pokhara for the night, then the trek begins!
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