Nepal

Nepal was a fascinating, beautiful, and infuriating place. We stayed just outside Kathmandu in the town of Bhaktapur which is a UNESCO World Heritage site. This was the view from our window into Durbar Square which is just breathtaking.

Bhaktapur was actually the capital of Nepal until the 15th century and it hasn't really changed much since then. Except for the motorbike and the electrical lines, this could almost be a medieval street.

It was on Dominic's recommendation (thanks, DMB!) that we stayed here instead of Kathmandu, and it's a lot quieter and you really get to experience the place without tourists in the mornings and evenings. We did venture into Kathmandu one day, but it's so packed and polluted (the locals wear masks over their nose and mouth when outside) that we were happy just to explore Bhaktapur the other days.

Nepalis are mostly either Buddhist or Hindu and there are little shrines on almost every corner and early in the morning you have to dodge the troops of women with their trays of offerings visiting various shrines.

There are also plenty of cows wandering the streets as they are sacred to Hindu's, but then we came across these chaps down at the monastery complex by the river. They seem to be living the good life.

There are some serious infrastructure problems in Nepal, namely electrical and water. It's a horrible irony that Nepal's greatest natural resource is water, but you can't drink the water from the taps as it's so polluted and most people in Bhaktapur get their water from communal wells which are also very polluted.

Electricity is on for only a few hours each day, but this issue has produced an interesting jump in the infrastructure development as there is solar power everywhere for when the lights go out. We found this beautiful festival one night, and there was a huge sigh from the audience when the power when out as they waited for the generator to kick in. It also makes walking around the town at night quite an adventure as there are very few street lights and those that there are don't work consistently. The first night I think we missed our hotel a couple of times in the dark!

Matthew, Joseph and I did sadly get very sick for a couple of days in the middle of the week, Matthew much worse than the rest of us. As our hotel room didn't have any heat (places aren't centrally heated here) it was a rough few days being sick in a cold room with no electricity. Michael, as he has the constitution of a billy goat, did not get sick at all, and consequently went out exploring without us. When out for a walk when we were feeling better, we found him hanging out with his new friend at the music shop teaching the Nepali owner how to play a 12 bar blues riff.

Matthew was just too tall for the country. I lost count of the number of times he smashed his head a day. As you can see, he dwarfs the large carved animals on the temple.

Saturday was washing day for both people and clothes we discovered. Mothers washing their kids in the street, women at the wells with the family clothes, and any wall is a good drying area, even those of a stupa.

And I leave you with my favourite picture of the trip: a sadhu that I came across one early morning. I love his white sneakers.