There was a 350.org environmental demo in Kathmandu’s Durbar Square, and I took a photo of it. It’s followed by a couple of videos with photos from the whole Nepal trip that were posted on YouTube to wrap up the Nepal leg of the t25y journey. Next stop is Cuba.
In Tengboche I went to a Buddhist prayer meeting, with the temple open to trekkers.
Flying Lukla to Kathmandu
Lukla was like returning to modern civilisation, with bars full of happy trekkers, pub games and rock music.
The flight from the ‘most dangerous airport in the world’ was smooth, and there were great views of the snow-capped Himalayas to the north as we flew through the valley seen earlier in the trek, and then over flat plains to Kathmandu.
I think Lukla is just beyond and inside the third ridge on the right as you view. The trek path led all the way across the mountains on the right side of the photo, and then it was up to Namche Bazaar.
The plane flies out of the ridge, and then back down the valley, before turning right to Kathmandu.
Kathmandu Swayambhunath Monkey Temple
Back in Kathmandu, everybody said the Swayambhunath Monkey Temple must be visited, so I did. It was really nice, and had lots of cool and funny holy monkeys around the place.
It is the most important pilgramage site for the Newars, who are the indigenous people of the Kathamandu valley.
Marc Latham’s central site is the Greenygrey (http://www.greenygrey.co.uk), and he has books available on Smashwords and Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/author/marclatham).
It was late September 2009 when I flew into Kathmandu, Nepal. I spent a couple of days in the city before heading down to Jiri to begin a week-long trek to Gokyo Ri for Everest views in the Everest (Sagarmatha) National Park. Here’s some photos from Kathmandu (first 4) and Jiri (last 3):
Nepal Kathmandu and Jiri
Marc Latham’s central site is the Greenygrey (http://www.greenygrey.co.uk), and he has books available on Smashwords and Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/author/marclatham).
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