Woke to the sound of the diesel generator at 7am, a recurring theme throughout India and Nepal due to power shortages. Had a buffet breakfast and took a short minibus ride to the Chitwan bus depot where we boarded our bus to Kathmandu. Gi had booked us seats on the left hand side of the bus so we would have good views on the trip.
We loaded our bags in the luggage storage of the bus and took our seats. We had amazing views of the deep gorges, fast flowing rivers and looming mountains. At times the road and some bridges were very narrow and it seemed like we were on the very edge of the road. We had a very good driver and felt safe even though it was a bit scary at times. We arrived in Kathmandu around 3pm and our first impressions as we drove in was that it reminded us of La Paz, a city in a bowl. We caught taxis from the bus stop to the hotel, checked in and then met up again at 5pm for our orientation walk. Our hotel, Kathmandu Prince hotel is located in Thamel, an area full of shops and restaurants. We were shown the essentials such as ATM and places to eat and also supermarkets. Catriona even managed to get some gluten free biscuits! We wandered around looking in the shops selling the real fake Northface gear and ended up buying some down jackets. We met back up with the group at the New Orleans restaurant for dinner. We both had steak and vegetables which was quite nice after eating vegetarian for so long. After dinner we all headed back to the hotel but did not manage to get much sleep as a wedding party had set up camp across the road. They just started to warm up as we went to bed. Band started at 3pm only bongo and brass instrument, by 4pm only the bongo was left playing, people were still yahooing though. At 4.30am a full marching band started up again and we watched them walk down the street outside our hotel.
At 5.30am we got up as we had booked a mountain flight on Yeti airlines. We met Mary and Phillip in the lobby at 6am and set off to the airport to be in time for our 7am flight. Unfortunately the airport was closed due to fog and we ended up having to cancel the flight to be back in time to meet up for our sight seeing at 11am. We jumped in the same minivan we had taken to the airport and headed off to Swayambhunath, one of Nepal's holiest Buddhist sites. We were shown the 375 stairs to the top but luckily were driven to near the top. The guide showed us around and gave us 20 minutes free time to take photos. The area surrounding the main stupa was covered with shops and people trying to get you to buy their wares. We bought a CD and some prayer flags and David took a few photos before we walked back down to the van.
Next stop was Bouddhanath which is 6km east of the centre of Kathmandu. It is the largest stupa in Kathmandu valley and is in the heart of Nepal's Tibetan population. It is a world heratige site and there are more than 45 Buddhist monasteries in the area surrounding the stupa.
We then set off back to the hotel and from there set out to lunch which we had at Pilgrim's read and feed restaurant which was at the back of a book store. We wandered around looking through the shops for the rest of the afternoon and had our final dinner with the group at Rum Doodle restaurant. After dinner we said our good byes and went to bed. Happy to be at the end of another great trip.
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