Besant Nagar to Base Camp

Now quite rested and refreshed, Rathika and I went for an early morning walk around Thamel on 2nd October. We saw hordes of young people, many of them drunk or stoned or both, leaving the numerous pubs and discotheques that dot the area. We wandered around the bustling market, already crowded owing to the Dasain shopping, had tea at a roadside shop that sold pooris in dangerous shades of magenta and yellow, bargained for tee shirts at a shop, eventually picked up four of them, and admired the architecture of the buildings and temples around, though sadly, many of them were dilapidated. We came back to Bistro Markham, the restaurant at the Potala Guest House for a delicious breakfast of toast with butter and jam, pooris and potato subzi and-- for the first time in 13 days-- curd. After settling our accounts, all of us packed up and headed for the Tribhuvan International Airport. We took care to wear the EBC Trek Tee shirts that we had got made in Kathmandu.  As the Air India flight took

We woke up leisurely on the 1st, the first time in the last many days that we had that luxury. I am sure each of us first pinched ourselves to make sure we hadn't all been dreaming, and when we realised we hadn't, we savoured the exquisiteness of the collective achievement of the last 11 days. After breakfast, we set off to tour the city-- visiting Pashupathinathji first and then Buddha Neelkanth temple with its deity reclining in the water filled tank. Then followed by a visit to the massive Buddhist Stupa and a bit of desultory shopping in the numerous shops that lined that area. Post which, we visited the Narayanhiti Palace, the former residence of the King and the Royal family, now called the Palace Museum. We admired the grandeur of the palace and felt sad when we saw the place where the massacre of June 2001 had taken place, killing the King, Queen and most of his immediate family. It was all the more poignant as Rathika and I vividly remembered Queen Aishwarya and Crown