22 & 23 NOVEMBER

A terriffic weekend. Visited Patan, a very well preserved former capital, with impressive woodcarvings and temples, some pretty explicit, 'close your eyes Ell', too late she had already taken a rubbing. The previous day, we had seen 'Kumari', the living Goddess, she is 4 years old, and will remain in her palace all year apart from I think 2 days when she is carried through the crowds. She will retain this position, until puberty. She will then be replaced by the next Kumari, who will be chosen after seeing how she reacts to grown men wearing masks dancing in front of her in a darkened room! She will also be invited to select iems of clothing & possessions.... if they match previous kumaris, then she is he one, simple.

Yesterday we were in Bodnath, the Tibetan sector of the city, and where many of the lodge owners and traders whom we met on the trek will spend the winter. So overwhelmingly touristy, but late afternoon, the Tibetans en masse circle the main Budhisat stupa, a mass of circling maroon.

Met one local loon - an ex banker now publisher, we purchased one of his quarterlies, who was looking forward next year to meeting up with Prince Charles.

BIG NEWS
2 weeks ago, we had our worst day so far when we lost 700 pix from our 5 week trek. Without going into too much detail, it was all Ell's fault! But after finding some miracle memory card recovery software, they have been retrieved. I had spent 2 weeks cursing the digital age, but now am back in love with it. The downside for you lot is that you will all have more images to sit through on our return. The blog will from now on hopefully carry a selection of these pix.