After about a five hour walk, we finally reached Namobuddha, a fairly pokey Buddhist temple sitting isolated atop a hill. The temple marks the spot where the Buddha was wandering about Nepal and came across a tiger about to eat a child, and the Buddha offered up his own flesh if the tiger spared the child (to end the suspense, the tiger spares both). It's quite a beauty spot, and the day we came there was some community festival, and we had a bit to eat and drink with the celebrants. All in all, a great day out, but one last word of warning before you set out. The word Circuit in Namobuddha Circuit is misleading, since once you get to your destination, your only choice is to retrace your steps all the way back to Dhulikhel.

Some more scenery along the trail to Namobuddha. While you're walking, remember to enjoy the scenery and the village life, because a) it's beautiful, and b) the temple that is the trail's final destination really isn't up to much.

Just some of the local people we passed along the way to Namobuddha. I'm always amazed when I'm walking in what I think of the middle of nowhere, and nobody bats an eye at what must look like a pretty strange sight. Certainly if the folks carting those big baskets were walking down the main street of Monroe there'd be plenty of gawkers. But equally strange was my experience in Manila, where I lived for three months in college. The point of this story is not to highlight the fact that my parents let me go live in Manila during the tail end of the Marcos regime, with martial law, a communist insurgency surrounding the city and daily riots and violent clashes with the army. All that, and the lack of electricity and the fact they had no way of contacting me and that I didn't have a way to get home because flights kept getting canceled, is completely irrelevant to the story. My point is that the Philippines had a long history as a US colony and later as a base for the US military so there was a huge American influence there, but wherever I walked in the city I'd immediately attract a crowd of kids calling me Joe, as in GI Joe. I couldn't figure out how the kids could maintain their enthusiasm for this when they saw foreigners constantly, in complete contrast to the Nepalese reaction. That's my point.

I know, mountains, mountains yadda yadda yadda...But the Namobuddha Circuit, in addition to having great mountain views, is also a great walk because it passes through several villages and farms along the way. It takes all day, and is pretty dusty at times, but it's well worth the walk. Besides, these mountains are different from the ones I showed you near Pokhara, and somewhere in this range is Mt. Everest, with Tibet on the other side of the snowcapped peaks. Naturally when we saw Everest we dashed over there and scaled it as well, but I don't want to distract from our discussion of the Namobuddha Circuit, so I won't show the photos of our planting a Thaimerican flag at the top.