We, that is George* and I arrived in Kathmandu last night, and after the most hair raising taxi ride ever (not sure my travel insurance will have covered such an extreme activity) through the dust and dark we arrived at the guest house which is an oasis in the middle of the chaos.  1 Everest beer later and we settled in with the local covers band playing our sort of music despite being so far from home.

Today we woke up late needing a bit of recovery after travelling yesterday, sleep was only disturbed by the clicking fan and the pigeon canoodling on the window sill, we are 5 floors up so it is quiet.  Egg sandwiches for breakfast at the guest house and then we planned to pop to the local supermarket.  However, we got a bit distracted and ended up walking to Durbur Square which has the largest number of temples in a square mile in Kathmandu.  There was something in the air today and by pure chance we ended up right in the middle of the last day of a festival (although still trying to work out which one!) Thousands of people descending on Durbur square to see the living goddess  paraded through the city on a float pulled by about 30 men through the crowds (no health and safety barriers here) we stood up on the temple Maju Dega for a great view everyone is friendly just like I was told – good job - we were rammed in.  We then took the “quiet route” back to the hotel not realising that the procession from the festival consisting of the representation of Ganash (chap dressed as an elephant running around with fire), the 2 goddess hand maiden floats, and the living goddess float took to the narrow streets we were walking.  We were totally in the middle of it all and it was excellent squashed against the shops with a close up view of the now sleeping goddess trundling by on the 6ft high wooden wheels – we decided it must be safe there were kids everywhere.  After a showering of dry rice and marigolds thrown like confetti it was all over and we made our way back stopping at “Fire and Ice” restaurant for pizza and risotto (note to self we must eat local food tomorrow!).  Now sat in the guest house bar recovering, can’t go to bed yet it’s not double figures. 

*George is one of my closest friends who has come out with me for the first 2 weeks, fellow physiotherapist from university days, ski season buddy and traveller extraordinaire (today she was also chief navigator)