Bikes and Boudhanath

After our team talk we all headed out to the Rum Doodle restaurant for a little butter chicken masala and a welcome beer, but then we all caved in for an early night! This morning we first went to choose bikes for Nick and Zoe (a zoologist and keen cyclist), calling in at two cycle shops. The second had rented to Red Spokes before, so they gave us a very good price! And they promised to put new cables and cogs etc on to the bikes. As that happened very quickly we had plenty of time for a good explore, Nick and I wended our way down to Durban square, past many temples and shrines, through many muddy puddles and market stalls. On the way back we stopped at the Gaia restaurant for lunch, just around the corner from the hotel and 5min later the rest of the group dribbled in too! I had momos - exceedingly delicious steamed dumplings! After lunch we met up with a guide from Eco Tours and he took us down to the Pashupatinath Hindu temple, where it was teaming with people, Sadhus and there were at least 3 cremations going on. From there we went to Boudhanath Buddhist stupa, this was much quieter even though there were lots of people making the circuit around, turning the prayer wheels. The rain was gently falling again and we went up to the Saturday Cafe for a chocolate brownie and a cup of tea. Nick's gone off to pick up his bike and we await Joyti our Nepalese guide to tell us if we're on a flight tomorrow or Thursday out to Lhasa!