There's a one eyed yellow idol to the north of Kathmandu

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There's a one eyed yellow idol to the north of Kathmandu

There's a little marble cross below the town

There's a broken hearted women tends the grave of Mad Carew

While the yellow god forever gazes down

J Milton Hayes

My dad used to recite this to me when I was little, so the name of Kathmandu always sounded interesting to me. The approach to the airport was "interesting", I swear the wingtips were only just missing the many hill tops, fair play to the pilot it was a smooth landing, and anyone who knows me, knows I am terrified when landing! It was 22c, and we were still in our England is freezing clothes. There was dust everywhere, and our carbon filter face masks were buried in our luggage. On our first foray out, we forgot them again, and after a few hours our throats were burning, so we picked the first cafe with a cold drink display, and also ordered some Momo's. We went veggie as the place looked a bit grim, and ordered two, which made the lady look questioning at us. We thought it was because you should order more, but we were being cautious, but of course what we got were two platefuls, about 10 on a plate - and they were great, but that was a few too many for us.

After that we always remembered our masks. Up till now we hadn't really seen much evidence of the 2015 earthquak, but we decided to walk to Durbar Square, and there it is really evident. The ancient temples and palaces are piles or rubble, with scaffolding everywhere. Although most are being restored, each by a different countries heritage funds, not much actual work seems to be happening, but they all have big boards up advertising that the American/Chinese/French etc government are funding this.

We were strolling round in T-shirts while the locals were all wearing Duvet jackets, all North Face it seems. Actually, when out of the sun it did get chilly. Every other shop is selling North Face down jackets and we are trying to resist the urge to buy any more, they are so cheap, but we haven't the room for any more. I especially liked the shop selling the North Face logo's to sew onto said jackets, or you could have chosen Adidas or any other well known brand.

After a lovely meal at The Third Eye (though Ken complained about having to sit on the floor) we were attracted to the sound of some live music. I'm not a fan of Irish Bars when not in Ireland, but this music was really good rock, though the clientele were almost all locals. They obviously had there own head banging groupies with them. It was a really great couple of hours, and we seem to be on local time now so at least we're not in bed this time by 20:00!

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