After returning to Kathmandu, I spent the morning after the Everest flights revisiting just one temple, my very favorite in the world, Bodhnath.

Everest at the far left, and Tibet just behind it. 

Finally, here is Mount Everest...the pyramid topped wonder. 

Sea of Himalayan Mountains, through propeller... 

These were mere shrimpy mountains at just over 20,000 feet or so.... 

Just breathtaking. Himalayas via morning flight. 

Himalayan view by small plane. 

After returning to Kathmandu, I just had to take an Everest Mountain Flight. I won't ever see that on foot (at least not until I receive bionic knees), so this was the next best thing. I will just post a bunch of mountain photos here and make separate entries for the shots of the big mack daddy, Mount Everest. 

Electroshock fish therapy. Yowza! 

Here is an interesting fishing methodology. You get two long metal poles and wire them up to the car battery strapped to your back in a wicker basket. You have to make sure to stand on dry land but a wet friend can help you position the poles correctly. You have a few friends behind you with nets ready to catch the windfall, because you're fishing by electrocution. 

Here is a corn harvest stalk...its display requests a better harvest this year than last. 

Bhim placing the grass monkey on the tree.... 

This is a photo of a grass monkey that Bhim made during a rest break along the trail. All along the way, Bhim would pick a few seeds, leaves, stems, or berries for me to smell, taste, or crush to realize, city idiot that I am, what coffee, pepper, licorice, and vegetable dyes look like before I see them in stores.  

Downhill view of Birethanti village. 

This is the lovely young woman who was our server at the restaurant pictured below, in Birethanti. She is 11 years old. 

This was the view from a balcony of a little restaurrant along the trail.  

A wooden platformed suspension bridge over a "rivulet", kindly built by the swiss.  

I think this is my favorite waterfall site. This was a hugely loudly gushing flow of water, but I think it is drowned out (as are many of the images) by the immensity of the landscape's scale. Ironically, Nepalis are very humble about their landscape features. For example, this was routinely referred to as a "rivulet". The very large landscapes we were walking over were called hills, at over 10,000 feet. Nepalis may consider calling that high-ish altitude, or for tourists, requiring aclimitization (meanwhile they are hopping and skipping over the stairs that line these hills). At 15,000 feet, a spot might be high enough to be called a base camp for the beginning real trek to a real mountain. They're funny like that. 

Verdant Waterfall. 

Waterfalls along the trek. 

More of the valley views. 

More of the valley views. 

More of the valley views. 

More of the valley views. 

In this valley shot, you may be able to see some of the terraced farm plots. Besides rice they were full of family garen consumables...tomatoes, potatoes, lettuce, cabbage, spinach, gourds, melons, some bananas, and millet.