tourism in Nepal

"Travelers will cross many rivers and climb many mountains. Plainsmen may always live within a valley. But only those seeking truth will ever reach the summit." — Anan, 11th century Indian saying.

Kathmandu
OK, I'm not going to say much about Nepal. First because I don't know much about it and second because there are books (and websites) with much better things than what I could write. We were not in Nepal long enough to have the time to learn much about the country, just playing tourists around Kathmandu for a few days before going on to Lhasa in Tibet and then to Cho-Oyu. Here are just a few pictures.
Nepal / Tibet. Katmandu / Lhassa. The same or different ? One on either side of the Himalaya. One city Indian at heart, the other forcefully Chinese. Late monsoon clouds drifting above bringing drizzles of rain. We spend some days in Katmandu, getting our gear ready in large heavy plastic drums that we roll all through the hotel, visiting Buddhist temples, sorting things out with the trekking agency. A hot an humid city, bursting with energy, cars surfing around the many pedestrians and bicycles. There we purchase our last missing pieces of equipment, try new foods, start getting sick too.
Like in many countries, the most interesting things to visit are the temples (Durbar Square in Patan, left). I wonder why... Looks like mankind has never been able to show much ingenuity for better things than religions (and war by the way)...<
Well, I don't want to criticize one of the only place in the world where two religions (Buddhism and Hinduism) manage to coexist peacefully. Some of the temples are even shared by statues of Buddhas (Right) and Hinduist gods (left). I know more than one country that could use their example...
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Another original characteristic of the temples there is that they often show couples doing... interesting things (left). OK, this is the country that gave us the Kamasutra, but still, I wish we had such decorations on our churches ! And if you arrived on this page through a search engine keyword thinking of free image, no such luck, but you might as well lose more time here...
Statues of cow are omnipresent (left), and many cows still roam the city. But it's sad to think that their main food is garbage and they usually die choked by plastic bags. The monkey statue (right) looked strangely weird to me and I don't have an explanation for it or the chains around it.