Soggy Moose Travels : I AM GOING TO KATHMANDU!!!!!

I am going to Kathmandu:

Namaste from Kathmandu!!!!

We were up and at um for breakfast as we prepared to depart for Kathmandu. The bus ride back to the Lhasa airport takes about one hour. During this ride we passed farmers in their fields and I waved goodbye to the Yaks.

At the Lhasa airport, we lined up to enter immigration and customs, security and bag check. We would proceed to each location and check in with passport and boarding pass. The process seemed to take a good bit of time as each stop our documents were inspected.

After clearing all these various stations, we made our way to the departure hall. Our flight was slightly delayed due to weather in Kathmandu.

Our local guide in Tibet, Serian, arranged for us to have seats on the right side of the aircraft. We learned his brother worked for the airline we were flying. This afforded us a great final view of Everest and surrounding mountains.

Upon arrival in Kathmandu we received a lei of marigolds as we boarded our bus. We then went to a local restaurant which is owned and operated by Yam’s brother-in-law (Yam is one of our tour guides). Here I went with the house favorite, a fantastic burger, Very very filling and one would not want for more and it did carry us over for our dinner.

Then we started visiting some of the World Heritage sites. Our first stop was Bhaktapur Durbar World Heritage Site. We walked about the streets and, yes, the earthquake damage is very evident. Many buildings were supported by timber braces. There are still areas of tent cities where you see the logos of the Red Cross and Salvation Army. To me, it is very evident this area will return although the process may take a while. Yet it was evident to me the people of this area are very resilient. I very much enjoyed walking the back streets and alleyways to get a feel for the daily life.

As we boarded the bus to drive to our next location a bit of rain started, since we covered our packs and and cameras the rain subsided and stopped.

Soon we arrived Pashupatinath World Heritage Site. This site was somewhat somber, as it is a location where Hindus bring their deceased to be cremated. Here the deceased are brought to the river where their bodies arrive in a funeral shroud and they are brought down to the river where their relatives place the deceased’s feet in the rivers water. The relatives then place water from the river in the deceased’s mouth. This is a time of mourning which I found as rather moving. The bodies are then taken to a covered platform near the river for cremation. The ashes are the placed into the river which flows to the Ganges.

We then made our way to the Yak and Yeti Hotel. The property is amazing and very five star. Simply it is an oasis in the city of Kathmandu.

We have an early start at 0530 for a city walk about.