Nepal including Mt Everest

We flew with JetAirways from Varanasi to Kathmandu and they offered us vegan food of a salad sandwich and fruit. Later we had a rice and dal dish, which was very spicy, along with yoghurt and KitKat?!

We started our trip in Kathmandu by seeing the Monkey Temple (Swayambhunath Stupa).

Then Kathmandu Durbar Square where we saw the three-year old Kumari (the living goddess child) who appeared at her window for us, although we had to wait 30 minutes. While walking around you can see the evidence of the earthquake from April 25th 2015 and the damage it has done to many of the monuments and buildings.

In the streets of Kathmandu there is dust and pollution so we had to wear a face mask. However, while you are walking around you can see decorations for their New Year 1138 and even christmas shops!

We also visited Patan and Bhaktapur Durbar Square, all three Durbar Squares are UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

We saw Mahaboudha temple with a million carvings of Buddha.

For lunch we tried the traditional vegetable dumplings, Momo and a vegetable curry with more rice than a paddy field. It was easy to find a few vegan options in Nepal, for example vegetable curry, vegetable momo, lentils (Dal), roti, rice, spinach, potato curry.

Boudhanath Stupa is one of the largest stupa’s in Nepal, and we learnt that you must always walk clockwise around a stupa at least three times.

Pashupatinath Temple is a massive temple complex, the main Hindu temple is not for foreigners but we could wonder around the rest.  We saw open-air cremation, and the smell is something that will last me a lifetime!

In the evening we went to a cultural dinner and dance show where we tried traditional Nepalese food and saw traditional dancing from different parts of Nepal. The food in Nepal can be made vegan friendly, we ate vegetable dumplings, lentil curry, spinach, rice (a mountain), mushrooms, vegetable curry, and the desert was made with yoghurt so instead we had fruit.

We flew on a mountain flight to see Mt Everest with Yeti Airways and it was expensive ($210) but it was worth it to see Mt Everest clearly and relatively close by. We received a certificate and a glass of champagne.

Another example of vegan food in Nepal, including roti, vegetable curry, dal (lentil), potato curry.

When leaving Kathmandu we had to wait 1.5hours in the airport, and this seemed to be normal as most of the flights were delayed! There is also only one shop in the airport with nuts and vegetable curry and momo, but little else for vegan food.