TO KATHMANDU AND BEYOND

A sign saying "Mystical, Magical Nepal" stretches over and above the road from the airport into Kathmandu. Based on first impressions of the chaos that defines the street scape in Kathmandu, it is a stretch of the imagination to find anything magical or mystical about it!
We arrived tired and a little jet lagged from our travels to Nepal from Brazil via London and Delhi. The transport strike on our second day resulted in discovering the city on foot and that is when the magical and mystical ball of string began to unravel itself. Wound up in the jumble of narrow streets, shrines and temples is a city steeped in ancient culture and religious mysticism. Buddhist and Hindu temples stand shoulder to shoulder with royal palaces. Shrines to various Hindu gods are erected on almost every street corner, splashed with coloured dyes and garlands of flowers.

Kathmandu's grey overcast skies are almost unnoticeable as people wear bright and cheerful coloured clothes and there is just so much activity and things to look at!












David just shooting the breeze with some holy men!
The lanes of the Thamel district of Kathmandu are bustling with sights and sounds, and they are shared with honking scooters, bicycles laden down with unimaginable loads of produce, boxes and crates and men and women beetling about with heavy loads in baskets supported on their foreheads!


It is the people that are so interesting to watch whether squatting in doorways selling spices or worshiping at shrines.