Kathmandu (Patan Dubar Sq)

Well even though it seems like it was a long time ago now, it's only been a month.  We departed the Philippines and made the return journey to Nepal ~ with one debaucherous night in Singapore wit good ol' Cory.  It was great returning to a country that we'd just been to 10 short months ago, where we already had a great place to stay, and knew well how to get around.  Below is a typical street in Thamel where we stay in Kathmandu...

 

We've seen nearly all the sites in Kathmandu, but we hadn't seen Durbar square in Patan.  This is somehow considered a different city (one of 3 in the Kathmandu valley), and perhaps was 10 years ago when Kathmandu was only have a million people (versus the 4 million now).  But when you're in a cab on the way there, we sure couldnt' tell where one city ended and another started.  In the end, we were happy we visited here, and there is a 'Durbar Square' in nearly every city, and we liked this one more than Kathmandu's.  We spent the better part of the day hear before we took off for the mountains just walking around Patan's streets.

 

Above is a bit of a view of the city from one of Patan's stupas.  Not the tiny little place it used to be, just a hodge podge of concrete structurs built with little to no planning.  And that was it for Kathmandu.  We didn't waste much time here, as we were keen to get trekking.  We had a day to see some sights not yet visited, a day to buy all our warm gear, arrange permits, and then we were out and on our way to Pokhara for one night... Annapurna Base Camp (ABC) awaited.