Swayambhu - the Monkey Temple and Farewell to KTM

Today we met up our friends (Anne, Mike, Eva and Arnold) from Ottawa and our trekking companion Sam from Toronto. We returned to the Monkey Temple or Swayambhu and tried to re-create our photo from 31 years ago sitting on the Budda but we were gently reminded that sitting on he Budda was not allowed. So we settled for a pic with us at the base. The temple survived the earthquake but there was evidence of some significant damage to one of the iconic stupas. Check out his link to a blog on the earthquake damage swayambhu before and after earthquake | ramblin' boy. Also check out Anne's Instragram account called bernerface for some great pics.

After wandering around Thamel and through the Dream Garden with our friends, Anne and I spent 3 hours packing for our trek as we leave tomorrow. While we followed the advice of our tour organizer and purchased North Face duffel bags that were 41 and 51 litres respectively, we did not anticipate that we had to fit in the rented sleeping bag INSIDE our duffel! eek!
Our handler here suggested that we buy a larger North Face bag (a knock off) for $5 but Anne was convinced that we could fit everything in and we did! I fit all my clothes into a 5 litre dry bag and the rest of my duffle has first aide stuff , sandals, and energy bars. We will be quite stinky when we get off the trail in two weeks!
We are flying to Pokhara tomorrow, where we are meeting our guide and porter and then taking a local bus for 4 hours to a village called Bhumdi where we are spending the night. Wednesday is the real start of our trek. The fuel embargo is having a significant effect on everything here - no gas for private vegphicles, no gas for restaurants (the menus are very limited) and no petrol for private cars. The map below roughly shows our route from Bhamdi all the way to Machupachre Base Camp and finally to Annapurna Base Camp also called Sanctuary. Turns out Anne won't be revisiting Poon Hill nor will I see it for the first time since I had giarda and was super sick on Poon Hill day. Oh there is always next time!
Am signing off for awhile - not sure when we will hit wifi next ...