Photos of our Fabulous Adventure
A decision was made last night to spend the morning here as it is just so serene and beautiful. We rise at 6:00am for the sunrise over the Himalayan, however the clouds are still hanging around, positive note – it does make for mysterious photos.
Breakfast is leisurely and we arrive at different times. Before too long, the lure of the gift shop takes us all back and the shopping frenzy continues. Many a Christmas gift has been purchased, and the first plan of action back in Kathmandu will be to acquire extra bags to carry the goodies home in!
Shortly after breakfast Cathy heads to the village to retrieve her new pants and Pam & Roger follow suit. Minutes later they return and Roger has ordered a custom made shirt that will be done by our departure time – hilarious.
At 11:30 we leave our paradise and, first things first, stop to pick up Roger’s shirt. They are just finishing it up and I took a great photo of the young lady sewing, a fellow watching her, and Bikesh, Prem and Roger ‘supervising’!
With Roger donning his new shirt, we leave town and snake our way down from the hills until we reach Bhaktapur, a Unesco World Heritage site. Our first stop is for lunch at a restaurant in a 17th Century building. Upstairs is full so Bikesh has us sit on the lower floor to have drinks and order. Once the upstairs clears, we will move up. Bikesh is hilarious and amazing, taking our orders and helping the staff deliver them. The upstairs never did clear so we happily stayed put and ate a great lunch.
Shankar has now joined us so time to see the sights of Bhaktapur. This area is one of the original 3 kingdoms of the Kathmandu Valley, and at one time, was the capital. The ancient Newar cultural is very prominent and the carving and architecture is stunning. The tour lasts over 2 hours and as 5pm nears, we are all wearing out and ready for the hotel.
We are relatively close to Kathmandu but as always the traffic is at a crawl and many occasions, at a standstill. This allows much observation, comments and laughter. At one point a monkey zips through the traffic in front of us. We watch in wonderment how he managed to cross without getting run over. He kept pace with us along the sidewalk and Roger commented “we returned to Kathmandu at the pace of a roaming monkey”. We all burst into laughter – we are quite giddy by this time.
Finally around 7pm we arrive back at the Kathmandu Guest House and head to our rooms. Lois, Cathy & I, b-line for a shop that sells bags and promptly purchase inexpensive duffle bags for our treasures. Cathy is in search of a tunic to go with her newly acquired pants and Lois & I almost run back to the hotel to crash. It has been another long, albeit, fascinating day.