The coach was arriving at 9.00am to take us sightseeing. I got up for morning prayers then tried to go back to sleep, instead I rolled out of bed to go downstairs for breakfast. This was the usual cereal, juices, tea/coffee, frying station, toast/croissants and condiments. We were the first ones for breakfast, joined soon after by Richard and Jess.
After breakfast we set off to Swayambhunath, also known as the Monkey Temple(Click Here)
Our next stop was to go look at the Pashputinath Hindu Temple(Click Here)
Next stop was lunch and then sightseeing of Paton Durbar Square (Click here)
After the tour when heading back to the hotel, we were caught in traffic from the funeral procession.
We went to our room when we got back to do Asar prayers and then to meet up with the group in the lobby. They were planning to go to Kilroy’s restaurant organised by the group leader so we decided to find a halal restaurant called Anatolia. After the lunch experience we were determined to find the place to get some halal meat before the trek!
When we got to Thamel, it was amazing, we first spotted a halal butchers, this was promising and carried on walking down Thamel taking in the sites. The whole place was full of outdoor shops and soveniers, nearly every shop and stall was selling North Face and most other fake branded goods, even the locals were wearing the clothes. The place was buzzing with tourists, we walked down a few alleys looking for the prayer room then headed back to the halal butcher. They showed us where the prayer room was near their shop, we should have guessed!
Outside the prayer room, a few Somalian guys were sitting around a table near food vendors. I was tempted to try some of the food but I resisted just in case my stomach decided to do somersaults. As Magrib was not for awhile we went around looking for Anatolia restaurant and found a pharmacy instead. We enquired about water purification tablets but they only sold them to purify 50l at a time, Ebrahim decided not to buy them and decided to wait until Namche Bazaar.
We went back to the prayer room and when we got upstairs, it was like a Masjid, very calm and comforting soon filling up for Maghrib.
After namaz Ebrahim spotted a small kid, a butcher cutting up meat for a customer at the same time the owner saw us and came over. I took my camera out an asked permission to take a picture of his shop. The owner was Mohammed Mushtaq born in the Muslim area of Nepal . Ebrahim had a very interesting conversation with him whilst I was busy snapping away. The guy looked cool for a Nepalese Muslim, Ebrahim thought the same and reminded us of some of guys back home. He also looked like someone you wouldn’t want to mess with!
After walking and walking, getting lost and asking several people we found Anatolia restaurant. We must have passed it several times and never managed to see it!
The restaurant was very clean, after the food was ordered, we made phone calls home using the STD downstairs, very cheap! The food arrived in good time and it was large portions of impressive boneless tandoori chicken pieces. Chicken Tikka Masala and drinks, very nice and came to rs.1150 (£11), now thats a bargain!
We tried to find Kilroy’s to meet up with the group, again we walked and walked getting lost again……no joy so we decided to head back to the hotel in the dark shattered.
Back at the hotel nobody had arrived from Kilroy’s, we went to our room to pray Isha, downsize our bag for the small plane to Lukla and then get some sleep, big day tomorrow!
IM2O........be inspired 