Nepal revisited 2
Part two of my epic trip to Nepal
We were only in Kathmandu for a couple of days before heading off to Pokhara where we would be starting our trek, so we did 2 short sight-seeing trips - one to Swyambinath (or Monkey Temple) and an overnight trip to Nagarakot (a small village above Kathmandu where you can watch the sunrise over the Himalayas).
Swyambinath is a Buddhist Temple perched up on a hill in Kathmandu Valley. It’s visible for miles around and apart from being a fascinating spot in itself, it affords a great view over the valley. It is however, quite a slog up all those steps and over-run by monkeys, who are cheeky and bad-tempered - not a good combination.
Temple Resident
En route to Temple
The temple itself has a huge central stupa ringed with prayer wheels, topped with a large gold centerpiece that is decorated with the colourful eyes that have come to sympolise Kathmandu. The area around the stupa has several smaller shrines where people make offerings to Buddha and spin the prayer wheels.
The Monkey Temple
Prayer Wheel
Stupa
Ian asking directions from the locals
Nagarakot
We spent our second night in Nepal up in Nagarakot, courtesy of Deepak, who organized a car to drive us up and paid for our hotel (bless his heart). There’s very little up there apart from hotels so we arrived at around 7.30pm, had dinner and a couple of beers then went to bed, knowing that we had to get up at 6.30am to see the sunrise at 7am.
It was very, very pretty and well worth the early rising.
Sunrise over the Annapurna Himalaya
It’s very high up there, on the rim of the valley (3,400m) - so high in fact that, when you look down it’s almost as if you’re in an airplane, looking down at the roofs of the houses.
Looking down into the valley below from Nagarakot
We were only in Kathmandu for a couple of days before heading off to Pokhara where we would be starting our trek, so we did 2 short sight-seeing trips - one to Swyambinath (or Monkey Temple) and an overnight trip to Nagarakot (a small village above Kathmandu where you can watch the sunrise over the Himalayas).
Swyambinath is a Buddhist Temple perched up on a hill in Kathmandu Valley. It’s visible for miles around and apart from being a fascinating spot in itself, it affords a great view over the valley. It is however, quite a slog up all those steps and over-run by monkeys, who are cheeky and bad-tempered - not a good combination.
Temple Resident
En route to Temple
The temple itself has a huge central stupa ringed with prayer wheels, topped with a large gold centerpiece that is decorated with the colourful eyes that have come to sympolise Kathmandu. The area around the stupa has several smaller shrines where people make offerings to Buddha and spin the prayer wheels.
The Monkey Temple
Prayer Wheel
Stupa
Ian asking directions from the locals
Nagarakot
We spent our second night in Nepal up in Nagarakot, courtesy of Deepak, who organized a car to drive us up and paid for our hotel (bless his heart). There’s very little up there apart from hotels so we arrived at around 7.30pm, had dinner and a couple of beers then went to bed, knowing that we had to get up at 6.30am to see the sunrise at 7am.
It was very, very pretty and well worth the early rising.
Sunrise over the Annapurna Himalaya
It’s very high up there, on the rim of the valley (3,400m) - so high in fact that, when you look down it’s almost as if you’re in an airplane, looking down at the roofs of the houses.
Looking down into the valley below from Nagarakot