I would not like to tackle it in the rain. But it is becoming an annual pilgrimage. By walking, we go through several neighborhoods where people of Kathmandu really live. You see crushing poverty but with a greatness of spirit evident in the people. There is congested traffic of all kinds.
Motorcycles here go way too fast.
There should be enforced speed limits. THAT is enough to make you a vegetarian. We saw a whole herd of pigs that evidently are permanent residents of the Bagmati river near the bridge we use going to Monkey temple. The Bagmati is a sacred river, people use it for ceremonial bathing and all the cremations are pushed from their stone pyres into this river, which later becomes the headwaters of the Ganges. It is hard to look at such a sewer and understand what religious significance, both Buddhist and Hindu, it has.