Monday 24th August, 2026
We got to sleep in, have a lazy breakfast and not be rushed to leave at 10:00am for our day trip around Kathmandu. Our hotel was located in the centre of Kathmandu, right next to the UNESCO heritage site, the streets were narrow and our bus is unable to get into that part of the city. We needed to walk via the Heritage walk to get to our bus.
First stop was the Golden Temple, the oldest in Kathmandu, there was a resident boy monk, whom we did catch a glance of, and also, this temple has a Kumari, a living goddess that belongs to the temple. The girl is chosen for her perfect looks at quite a young age (3-5 years), maintains her status until puberty, and during that time her feet do not touch the ground and is carried everywhere! Once she has reached puberty, another girl is chosen. We didn't get to see the Kumari.
As we walked to the bus, we followed the Heritage Trail, saw numerous shrines, water bathing centres and stupors.
Got to our bus and hopped on to be transported to Bhaktapur, another UNESCO World heritage listed site here in Nepal. It is a much larger centre than the site in Kathmandu, and was the original centre and king's residence. There were a large number of well preserved buildings here, we spent about 2 hours strolling around.
Next stop today is another G Adventures special moment supporting local women with upskilling and giving them a chance to earn some money and contribute to the family income. Here they have a school where they teach how to make and cook Mo-Mos, a local variation on the dumplings. They are a lovely bunch of ladies, with a great sense of humour and gave us an enjoyable lesson and lunch !
Next was a visit to Swayambhunath, also known as Monkey Temple. Another Budhist shrine with a great view over the city and is the location of the oldest shrine in Kathmandu. Also home to lots of monkeys.
No dinner for us tonight after a large lunch, but we headed out for a delicious coffee and a slice of cake - yum. The hotel here is one of the best we have stayed in so far, both in location and quality of accommodation.