Temple time

After a good night of sleep, we woke up this more far less delirious. We did not have any kind of fixed plan beyond eating breakfast and drinking coffe. Beyond that we were going to figure things out as we went. This morning we also had a rather loud power outage for our part of the city which is not a big surprise since Kathmandu has rolling blackouts due to a creative approach to the electrical grid.  Fortunately there was a back up generator so we had lights in the bathroom. 

After breakfast we chatted with the owner of the guest house and he arranged a driver for the day to take us to various sites around town. The cost was very reasonable and the convenience could not be beat. We started, of course, with a bit of a traffic jam.

We went to three different UNESCO world heritage sites: Bodhi Stupa, Pashupatinath, and Patan. I took about a billion pictures, but in the interest of having this upload and because I want to go to sleep, I will only post a few.

Bodhi Stupa in probably the most significant Buddhist site in Nepal. Like much of the city, it sustained damage in the earthquake last year, so parts of it are still close on under scaffolding. Still, we were able to go into some of the adjacent temples and the whole thing is giant and stunning. 

Pashupatinath was next. It is a Hindu temple on the river that feeds into the Ganges. It did not get quite as hard hit in the earthquake, though there were areas with damage. It is a huge complex with multiple temples and squares, plus the pires along the river.

Next we traveled to Patan. The complex was built as a seat of government with many temples. Major parts of the complex were reduced to rubble and dust in the earthquake, but there are still many amazing buildings and the government of Nepal is working to restore as much as they can of what was lost. 

Amongst all of this we did some eating, some drinking on rooftops, some shopping, and generally took things at a relaxed pace. We found a good spot of our evening meal at a nearby rooftop restaurant and, shortly after we got back the power kicked in. It sure is nice that the fan is working. 

So that is the day in brief. Tentative plan to visit the Monkey Temple tomorrow, but subject to change and whim as it should be.