Passing one of the cremation ghats as an elderly man raked through the ashes looking for gold, a dog took off with a large charred chunk of something in its mouth. A pack chased the finder up the steps and ino the city's warren. 4 weeks without motor vehicles, only the sound of donkey and yak bells and the whistles of their minders. A jungle green giant praying mantis creeps slowly along the bamboo railing in front of me. Across the valley a foaming waterfall crashes down the hillside.
Porters flip flop past, invisible behind their huge loads.
The terraced fields of rice and millet seem to staircase upwards as if towards the entrance of a great Mountain King's Palace. Four cows stubbornly refuse to get onto the swaying suspension bridge causing a Nepalese traffic jam of porters, trekkers, donkeys and villagers. Two men try to scrum them over. The lead cow merely sits down. After ten minutes of trying to coax the beasts over they finally pushed the cows aside to allow the build up of people and animals to cross.