Last night we hit the town - we walked into Thamel which is the tourist hotspot in Kathmandu for an excellent dinner in a courtyard restaurant washed down with a few beers and were safely back in bed by 10pm, well before the clubs and nightlife got going.

Today we went on a guided tour of Kathmandu. It was arranged by Kinner, our guide on the trek but he brought along another chap to do the guiding round the monuments. If you have never been on a tour of buddhist, muslim or similar sights you would not appreciate how dull they can be. The guides don't tell stories or have an interesting patter, the they just repeat the rules or rituals which the faithful need to adhere to. These normally have numerical elements to them, four colours, five aspects, nine rules and so on. First we went up a hill just outside the city to the Swayambhunath or Monkey temple where there were a collection of shrines and stuppas (and lots of monkeys). some shrines were quite photogenic but it was also a bit scruffy. The guide lectured us for half an hour and then begrudgingly let us loose on our own to walk round. Then back on the bus, next stop Durbar Square. In a corner of the square he started his next lecture, I walked away for a bit and when it was clear he was going to go on for ever I made my excuses and left, walking back across the city on my own, what a miserable and rude old sod I am.

Durbar square used to be full of lovely wooden temples, about half collapsed during the 2015 earthquake so now the square is a little sad with lots of building work going on.

The walk back was much more enjoyable, lots of opportunity for people watching, you don't get hassle from touts or scammers "wanting to be you friend" in Kathmandu, a million times better than India. At the time of writing I have no idea how the boys got on with the rest of the tour, I am sure I will get a full report over dinner this evening.

Update: The boys are now back, it does not seem to have got any better as the tour progressed and they were talking about the four noble truths: You always pay taxes, you die, Father Christmas does not exist and there is no tooth fairy. From that I get the feeling they were not converted to Buddhism.