Kathmandu, Nepal

 We awoke this morning in Cambodia, went to the airport and flew to Nepal.  It was a 4 hour flight.  Mostly there was cloud cover, but as we approached Nepal, the clouds broke and you could see some of the Himalayas in the distance.

Once in Nepal, we first went to visit some Hindu shrines. 


These are scattered in the city center, and it was obvious that some buildings were heavily damaged by the recent earthquakes.


Kathmandu is a bustling city with lots of people (over a million), but the city itself seems unable to support them.  For example, there are “telephone” poles and wires all over the city that look like this, or worse.


Apparently there are plans to replace all these with underground fiber optic lines, but that will be a massive undertaking.

The streets are narrow and winding, but they swarm with traffic.  Not just “traffic” but almost all kinds of traffic — bike, motor scooter, motor bikes, cars, trucks, busses — with little apparent regard to the lane markings or traffic lights.  There are so many motor bikes, that it seems a motor cycle helmet is the national hat of Kathmandu.

We finished the day off with a lecture on Buddhism and Buddhist Architecture by Jack Daulton.


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