After the relative serenity of Pokhara I found Kathmandu a little overwhelming at first. The main tourist area of Thamel is teeming with tourists, cars, cycle rickshaws, tourist shops and locals all jostling for position on the narrow streets. Hawkers try to palm off pots of Tiger Balm, hashish, bracelets and all manner of things while artfully dodging the traffic and the potholes. Many people had said that Kathmandu was a welcome relief after a few months in India but my first impressions were that it was just as manic. A few days later though I changed my mind as I became comfortable with the streets and began to find good places to eat, shop and waste the hours away. Our digs was a place called Elite for Rs100 a night.
For a few days Ross and I walked around some of the tourist attractions in the city - Durbar Square just south of Thamel, Patan the so called 'City of Beauty' just south of the filthy Bagmati river, the Buddhist temple on top of the hill at Swayambhunath known as the 'monkey temple', the sacred Hindu area of Pashupatinath where bodies are publicly cremated in the same way as Varanasi, and the huge peaceful stupa at Boudha.
Four days was not nearly long enough in Kathmandu but it was time I got back into India and continued my way south towards Sri Lanka. Tonight I'm catching the overnight bus back to the India/Nepali border at Sanauli and then continuing to Gorakhpur where I should be able to catch a train further west towards Agra and the Taj Mahal.
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