Nepal
November 2003
After the very large and crowded city of Varanasi the sprawling Kathmandu Valley
seemed like a collection of villages.  Compared to the Indian cities we had visited the
streets of Kathmandu were wide, the traffic light, the buildings low, pedestrian areas
uncrowded.  Nepal's capital is beautiful, with a heavy sprinkling of artistic Hindu temples
and Buddhist shrines, and the snow-capped Himalayas in the distance serving as an
attractive backdrop.
As usual, our group tour Kathmandu began with bus circuit highlighting the area's main
tourist attractions, some of which are shown below.
In Kathmandu we also visited a Hindu "burning ghat", a smaller version of the one we had
seen in Varanasi.
From Kathmandu we flew back to Delhi, the end of our SmarTours tour.   Virginia and I
then checked our bags at the luxury hotel in which we had stayed at the start of our
journey, took a walk and relaxed in the cocktail lounge for an hour or two until it was
time to take an autorickshaw taxi to the railway station for the start of our independent
journey described in the "Rajasthan" section of this website.
Kathmandu cremation