Bungamati and religious sites in Kathmandu

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After several days of city life, I was ready to see the countryside. Unfortunately, the weather is not good enough at this time of year to see the mountains. We settled for a shorter excursion into the local village of Bungamati where we walked through a network of tiny streets with ancient houses festooned with chillis and garlic hanging out to dry. For me, this was one of the highlights of the trip to Nepal.

We had one further day of intense sight-seeing, visiting several Buddhist Stupas. One historic tourist attraction was a Hindu Temple complex on the banks of a river where cremations were performed. This was an interesting but rather gruesome place so we did not linger....

On 10th , we finally managed to fly to Delhi. Our hotel tour manager Raj pulled a few strings and got us government reserved seats that were released 48 hours before the flight.

Just before we left, I bought a Nepali Sarangi, a small stringed instrument played with a bow - not exacty the easiest thing to carry around in a backpack. Still, it will be fun to learn to play it if it survives the journey!

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