Shopping and a climb

I had allocated the morning for shopping and the afternoon for climbing up to the World Peace Pagoda. Nepal is heaven for buying old weather gear and active wear. I spent USD25 on replacing my Keens sandals which broke a couple of years ago, USD15 on a Under Armour compression top, USD15 on a Haglofs thin thermal pullover and USD10 on a Mammut sports tee. Kim liked the Mammut tee so much (through Whatsapp) and asked me to get him one, which I did. I finally bought a Mammut light fleece jacket for USD12 as I was getting more ruthless, since I had discovered that the Mammut tees can come down to USD8 (shopkeepers tend to discount highly when you know you’ve bought somewhere else and are unlikely to buy again).

It isn’t as cheap as the bargains I’ve had in China in the past, but it is increasingly hard to get good copies in China anymore. They tend to sell their local brands at highly inflated prices. But I’ve had good bargains going to the right (but difficult-to-find) places.

After lunch and a rest, I set out at 1500 to the boat pier where I hired a boat/boatman to take me to the beginning of the trail that leads to the World Peace Pagoda, built by Japanese Buddhists. It was a quick row of about 15 minutes. The climb took 45mins and got me rather sweaty. The view from the top was as good as it could get on a hazy day. The Pagoda, being relatively modern, wasn’t very inspiring. I made my way back down and in my usual style, took the same amount of time as coming up (most people come down in half the time).

I fed myself a Punjabi meal before another early night.