Durbar Square, Kathmandu

A 3.45am call to travel up the mountain to see sunrise over Annapurna!!!
I wasn't quite expecting this, but a bit of blue sky would have been welcome!!

The storms last night hadn't cleared the cloud, so visibility was limited!! We left the viewing point to walk back to the coach as it started to rain and hail! Waterproof ineffective.....got absolutely soaked!! We were back to the hotel for a quick breakfast before the flight to Kathmandu. Cases packed ready to go. Fortunately I had left out a dry tee shirt and trousers to travel in. A session with the hair drier helped to make the bra and trainers less soggy before the trip.

Arrival in Kathmandu coincided with one of their strikes, which occur frequently. Motorised traffic is not allowed on the street, with the exception of tourist vehicles. They welcome tourists as a major source of income, so would do nothing to jeopardise that. The people marching, hanging about etc were good natured and we did not see any interaction with the many police that manned junctions and places of significance. One of the benefits for us was the quiet roads, normally heaving with traffic.

The only accident we saw in all of our travels was on the road seen in the picture when two boys on a bike ran into a girl crossing the road and knocked her over!! They were the only ones on the road for 100 yards!!

We visited Durbar square in the afternoon and this blip summarises many of the things I now associate with Kathmandu. It shows one of many temples, motorbikes galore and piles of bricks. A road widening scheme has resulted in the fronts of properties being demolished. The bricks are left in heaps where they fell, you can see into the living spaces! Not sure what the plans are for clearance and reconstruction to make the houses water tight before the monsoon!

I had expected to see monkeys and dogs after seeing my daughter's blips, and was beginning to think I would be going home without any pictures :0(

But this monkey obliged and this sleeping dog didn't look like a stray, just someone relaxing in the sunshine.

There were concerns that our son-in-law wouldn't be able to join us for dinner because of the strike, but it acted in his favour, empty roads saw him across the city in no time.

We shared news of our adventures and P answered, as best he could, the many questions that had come to mind during the previous days. It has been a shame that we have had such little time in Kathmandu, so much to see and learn. We may be back!!!! On a good note we will see P in July when he is home for the summer holidays. :0)