Never ending love and Peace - Nepal

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Namaste All
Because of being too late booking the flight, we HAD to fly business class, so it was a short but very enjoyable & comfortable flight, we arrived in Kathmandu and were greeted by Bhanu, our Nepalese contact and trek organiser. He took us to our hotel, the Tibet Guest House, (very nice) where he introduced our guide for this trek, his Uncle Om. Over chai final details of our trek were worked out and the flight from Pokhara to Jomson paid for. Bhanu checked our gear which all fitted in 1 rucksack for our porter Naryan to carry. All the trekking business out of the way, next morning we spent with Bhanu sightseeing around Kathmandu.
We visited 3 temples, so if Arnie wasn't templed out before he certainly was now!!!
The first was a Buddhist Temple, Boudhanath, which has a huge Stupa of over a 100 meters in diameter, (quite a way to perabulate around) and a huge pair of all seeing eyes watching you, plus the third eye which especially looks out for evil deeds!!
Next was Pashupatinath, the most important Hindu temple in Kathmandu, on the banks of the Bagmati river. This river reputed to be connected to the Ganges by an underground stream that allows for the spirits of the people cremated on the banks to be released to a far better place. Only Hindus are allowed into the temple so we had to be content to look in from outside and take photos of the enormous golden bull from behind! From the opposite bank of the Bagmati you get wonderful views of the golden roof of the temple.
I also found out that the easiest way to tell a genuine Holy Man. If they request money for photos they are not truly holy. The four in my photograph didn't request money but they did enjoy having their photos taken!!
From here it was off to another Buddhist temple, which has monkeys to keep you company climbing the 365 steps. This is Swayambhunath temple; its main claim to fame is a shrine in which the remains of bone of Buddha’s are kept. It also has the most fantastic views out across the city of Kathmandu and the surrounding area.
That’s enough sight-seeing for today, tomorrow we leave Kathmandu for Pokhara by bus at 7 am and from there our trek starts. Namaste Maggie & Arnie

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Photos

Arnie on the Flight
how the other half live!! Proper tablecloths and napkins and seats that massaged our backs throughout the flight, and the service was excellent

Group photo
Arnie & I with Bhanu and Uncle Om. Bhanu did the organising and Om was a wonderful guide.

Boudhanath Temple
Boudhanath Temple on which the stupa is over 100 meters in diameter, and huge eyes watching you as you circumperabulate it.

Prayer wheel
Bhanu turning the huge prayer wheel at Boudhanath Temple

Colourful and REAL Holy Men
Brightly dressed and very sociable Holy men, the way to tell the difference between these colourful characters and other look alikes is that these didn't care what or if you paid them to take their photo.

Pahupatinath Hindu Temple
The huge golden bull (easy to tell it's a bull!!) inside Pashupatinath Hindu Temple, the most important Shiva site in Nepal.

Cremation
As it is said that the Bagmati River is connected to the Ganges by an underground stream, it's a site of many cremations in which the river will help the spirit to be released to a better place.

Swayambhunath Temple
365 steps up to this temple and there's monkeys that accompany you as struggle with the altitude and going up hill!

Buddha
Shrine in Swayambhunath Temple. At this one there is believed to be the remains of a bone from Buddha

Everest
This is as close as we got to Everest, but Arnie quite enjoyed this version!