Mongolia...maybe, may not

Happy 4th of July, America (actually United States - South Americans are not too keen on U.S. folks calling themselves "Americans").

This morning was all about finding (and hopefully booking) my flight to Mongolia. Well, no such luck as my departure date is too close to the Naadam Festival and it seems every Chinese is also going to Ulaan Baatar next week! I spent few more hours at the travel agency (BTW, Wayfarers in Thamel was fabulous for booking flights) after my futile attempt on expedia.com. They were able to get me a flight to Beijing, but not to UB but I needed to leave tomorrow morning. I decided to book the flight and see if I can find a "cheap" flight or train to UB from Beijing, hopefully leaving before July 10th. I guess my visit to Beijing will happen now instead of post Mongolia...5 days in Beijing should be plenty of time to see the city and visit the Great Wall, the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. Unless I can get a train ticket or flight to UB, departing Wednesday or Thursday.

There was so much I wanted to see and visit around Kathmandu and now I have just an afternoon to do anything. I don't have time to check out Boudha or Patan, so it's either the Durbar Square or Swayambhunath (also known as "The Monkey Temple"). They're both within walking distance from the hotel. I settled on Swayambhunath since I was more curious on seeing monkeys in Kathmandu...heard so much about these
monkeys.

The walk to Swayambhunath took about 30 minutes heading west of the city, away from Thamel, and I was the only foreigner walking on these streets. It was nice to be away from the craziness of Thamel and really see how the locals live. The Swayambhunath Temple is on top of a hill, overlooking Kathmandu and the surrounding valley. To get to the top, one has to walk up a steep set of steps where few monkeys hang out to greet people (or more likely to steal their food). The top is a popular place for locals (and monkeys) to relax and watch the sunset. There are more monkeys around the temple where they roam free, always looking for food. They're so used to people and dogs, they basically walk around without any fear...they definitely rule the place.

Steep steps...365!

View of Kathmandu

The stupa has Buddha's eyes and eyebrows painted on.

One of the monkeys waiting for food from a stranger

Monks...monkeys...dogs...all live in "unity"

By the time I got back to Kathmandu, it was getting dark so I skipped Durbar Square. I'll have to visit the square and Old Kathmandu next time.

I still haven't made a hotel reservation so that was on my next 'to do' list, but the hotel's Internet connection was down...back to Thamel to search for a restaurant with free wi-fi. Given it's my last night in Nepal, I decided to splurge on a nice meal at Third Eye Restaurant (I think it's the same owners as the one in Lhasa and Shigatse). The best part of the evening, the free wi-fi from the Mercantile Bank was very fast (though I did have to constantly click on the annoying free trial link)! After much consideration, I decide to go high brow and book a room at Hotel Kapok, a small boutique hotel just outside of the Forbidden City. Hotel Kapok opened in 2006 and is considered to be the first designer boutique hotel in Beijing. Dinner done. Hotel reservation done. Flight to UB from Beijing NOT done (will have to deal with it in Beijing). Update my blog NOT done...ok, let's power through the update and post my biking through Tibet journal! Oh crap, the restaurant is closing soon and I'm nowhere near done...back to the hotel and hope the Internet connection is up.