On our last day in Nepal, our plane didn’t leave until after 9 PM. The good news is we had a full day and didn’t have to be anywhere at dawn.  But we are tired and ready to head home. We arranged for a late check-out and rescheduled our final touring to make the day as relaxing as possible.

We spent our last hours visiting the oldest of the ancient Durbar Squares at the UNESCO site of Bhaktapur. We saw so much of the same type of intricate wood carving found in our hotel and enjoyed walking through the winding streets. We searched for (and found) the famous peacock window, watched the ceremonious arrival of some sort of VIP delegation, shopped, and people-watched. 

Our final stops included the most significant Hindu and Buddhist sites, Pashupatinath and Bodnath, respectively. At Pashupatinath, cremations were underway and aggressive monkeys were absolutely everywhere. When temple workers came out to feed them big clumps of bread it was like being in the middle of a surreal movie scene with hundreds of monkeys running in from all sides. Last week our guide Kanchan had a client bitten by a monkey who “just came out of nowhere,” so we did our best to stay out of their way. The nearby massive stupa at Bodnath is a focal point for the area’s Tibetan Buddhists and is surrounded by a ring of lovely shops and galleries.

At around 6 PM we were dropped at the airport for the long journey home with 24-hours of flying time. The international airport at Kathmandu is pretty awful. There is a shared lounge for business and first-class passengers.  You have to walk up 24 steps to get to it. Once there you can have a slice of cheese on white bread.  Everyone is corralled into one gate area, loaded on a bus and driven out to the plane en mass.

But once onboard our Etihad flight, we were homeward bound, another great adventure tucked into our memories.