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Nepal Travel: Exploring Kathmandu January 2009

I met up with Steve and Nara in Kathmandu to ring in 2009 with a great dinner at the Radisson and a reggae cover band (even though the temperature outside was definitely far from tropical). Kathmandu in January is usually pretty foggy and 2009 was no exception. Steve and I even tried to get out one morning on a Yeti Air flight to Lukla and explore the Mount Everest Base Camp region, but after waiting nearly eight hours for the flight to take off (it eventually was cancelled), we realized the snow-capped Everest peaks would not be in the cards for this trip. We also heard about the Yeti Air plane crash in October 2008 which was caused by similar foggy conditions, so we just got a refund on the tickets and explored Kathmandu instead. For me, the highlight was a long-overdue trip to the Swayambhunath stupa (Monkey temple), one of the few UNESCO World Heritage sites that is overflowing with unruly monkeys. As long as you keep an eye on your wallet, sunglasses, keychains, gold rings, teeth fillings, etc., a run through the monkey gauntlet at the Swayambhunath stupa is worth the trip.