Before I forget to say, I saw a strange sight today, a chicken coming out of a dentist. It was walking by itself, not being carried, met a chicken that was waiting outside and they both walked up the road together, quite the thing. Classic!
The last couple of days we have done an awful lot of walking, today it was quite enjoyable, yesterday was more of an endurance test. Which we both survived and hopefully made us stronger!
We have been thinking about sending some stuff home, as we have bought some new things and are carrying items such as thermals that we needed for the Peru trip but which we won't need again. It would also help us lighten our load for moving around. First of all we asked at a courier broker place, he was quoting us over £150, which I think by the look on our faces he realised was too much so brought it down to £94. When we said the parcel wouldn't be too big, he said that small parcels get left in the corner and forgotten about until something bigger comes along, and then it gets sent with that. Well that didn't impress us much so we left. I read in the travel guidebook about sending items home by the General Post Office, which was reliable, so we Googled it and managed to get directions and it also had prices for sending parcels which would be just over £10. An added bonus was that it wasn't too far away.
So in the morning we set off with our carrier bag full of things to be sent home, in Nepal parcels being sent abroad need to be checked and packed in front of postal staff . It was a twenty minute walk to the post office, but it was along a very busy road, both with people and with traffic, so you were constantly sidestepping to avoid people, what with stalls and people selling their wares by the
roadside and others begging. The dust and fumes from the cars was also making it very unpleasant,
made worse by the constant honking of horns. We were just beginning to think we were lost, I know unbelievable, when a taxi driver, shouted at us " Taxi " and pointed at his car, we told him we didn't need one and asked the way to the General Post Office, waving his hand he showed us where it was, we were about five steps away from it.
The post office, is a very dark cavernous building, so I took my sunglasses off, didn't help still dark and cavernous, and loads of counters stretched out before us, so we didn't know where to go, aimlessly we looked at signs , which didn't help. We must have either looked confused or dodgy as a security guard asked us what we wanted and pointed us in the right direction. relieved we walked up to two women sat at a desk right at the very end, one took the bag of us weighed it and shouted "Outside" and gave us the bag back. We just looked at each other, repeating the word outside, coming up with suggestions with what it could mean. Then the other woman gestured for the bag, took it
weighed it, said it was 2kg which was the maximum we could have and told us to go and buy packaging for it outside. Ah, so that was what outside was all about! So we went outside and after a
wee wander found a stall selling what we needed. We went back and the stuff was packed in front of
them and then carefully taped up. Then we had to go to another counter to get stamps and then we had to go to another counter to hand it over. So now the parcel, hopefully is safely on the way.
Relieved that we had done that job and pleased that we had not gotten lost we felt confident enough to head to Patan Dhokar, using a map, as there was another geocache there for David. The walk there would be just slightly longer than what we had already done that day, so we thought we could cope with that. As soon as possible we crossed the road, as it was less crowded on the other side and also more interesting , having parks and a temple which was in the middle of a man made lake. It also took us past the national stadium. David likes seeing stadiums and football grounds, we have travelled miles to find them before, especially in Malta which is quite a small island!
The walk took us more out of the touristy area but we felt safe enough walking along the streets, we
saw monkeys using the electricity cables as a bridge to get across the roads, we saw a cow
wandering about, haven't seen one of them in a while and sadly we walked past a huge pile of rubbish rotting by the side of the road, this is the first pile like that we have seen in Nepal. After a very long walk in the baking sun, we
came to the place, the geocache place, where David very subtly tried to find it! No joy, it wasn't there,
I couldn't believe it, all that way and it wasn't there, so I made him get a photo at the spot so he could log it on the website, anyway! Then we had to do the long walk back.
The next day we headed for the Buddha Amideva Park, this is on the same hill as the Monkey temple, which we had visited on our first day in Kathmandu. Overnight it had been raining very heavily, so
we did wonder if it the rain would hold off for us, if it did we planned to walk up the IchanguNarayan hill , which led through villages to a temple at the top with lovely views.
We set off bright and breezy, to get slightly puzzled at one of the squares, or chowks as they call them, once again a lovely Nepalese man, came to our aid, we must be perfecting our confused faces and he pointed us down the right lane.
We headed off armed with a map, and did really well passing local shops and houses. We passed another butchers this one had chickens on its table and then something caught my eye beside them, it was a goats head, ears, skin, eyes everything, took me by surprise but just the norm here. Then we came to a part where we could choose two different paths, and we opted for the one on the right.All was going well, until the track which wasn't great turned into a muddy mire, which we had to slip slop all the way up, with motorbikes and cars slithering past us. David managed it relatively unscathed, I was manky. Just look at the state of my toes, and I had mud splatters all up my legs.
At the top of this path we came across the gateway to the Buddha park as soon as you enter you see
three large Buddhas sat in front of you. This area was really nice and had lots of people wandering
around.
The monkeys were there grooming each other. A couple of times I actually felt a bit wary of them, normally they don't bother me, but they did basically ignore us and other people. 
At the end of the prayer flags there is a baby monkey hanging upside down , he spent ages playing on the string.
David at another geocache, he has now found 1005
After we did the walk at the top of this hill we headed back down to the bottom. Every morning Buddhists do a pilgrimage around the base of the hill, which they walk in a clockwise direction, we decided we would do the walk too. The temples/shrines at the bottom were beautiful, painted lovely and looked clean and well cared for.
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These are some of the mandala prayer wheels, you spin them as you walk past. Instead of saying the prayer you can just spin it and that is classed as you saying the prayer.
As I was taking this photo it started to rain, when it rains here , it really chucks it down. We are at the tail end of the monsoon season, so have landed lucky in that we have not been caught in it too much. 
The rain had now stopped but as you can see we are slightly soggy. David is looking at his trusty map. As we were stood here, rainwater suddenly started running down a gutter beside us. David suggested that I wash my feet in it, I declined.. 
Beautiful paintwork on the side of this temple.
This is a huge mandala prayer wheel, probably taller than me which was spinning inside this doorway.
A convoy of Apple sellers.
We were so wet and soggy, we did not go up the second hill but headed back to the hotel and that is when I saw the chicken at the dentists.
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