I'm in Bhaktapur now.

This is a world heritage town and you can see why. I have yet to explore properly, but the centre is strewn with temples and ornately carved buildings around a big square. I am actually staying in a 'homestay' which is really just a room in a family home in the backstreets of this pretty town. The wooden shutters of my window open out onto a courtyard with a big rectangular pond in the middle (there are a lot of ponds here for some reason) and around it Newari life bustles about. I suspect that I will be sat in that window for some time tomorrow.

There is some relief from the pollution of Kathmandu but this whole valley seems to be in a permanent haze. It makes the smog in LA seem refreshing. Apparently it is partly to do with the quality of the petrol they get here. Everywhere you go you see people with face masks and when stuck behind a bus or van with thick black smoke just billowing, you can see why.

I can't figure out what I think of Kathmandu. I had a lovely weekend with Caz, staying with her in her five star hotel. That made an interesting change from the types of places I have become accustomed. I had a bath and we ordered room service - I can't work out which I was more excited about.

We had a mellow two days, trying to get a feel for the town with the limited time she had. We wandered and shopped in Thamel, which is really a backpacker convention. It's just too much, tourists, crusty, hippy backpackers at every turn, shops brimming with more tie-dyed bags and ali baba trousers than you could sell in Camden... but very handy if you need an internet cafe, a bowl of pasta or a danish pastry. For some reason, cake seems to be the order of the day in Kathmandu and there are bakerys everywhere.

My favourite place was Bodhnath (Boudha) stupa. It happened to be just a ten minute walk from the hotel, in fact, we could see it from our window, although at that point, we had no idea that it was it. It is possibly the largest stupa in the Nepal certainly an important one and a place of great imporatance to Tibetan Buddhists. (A stupa is a bell shaped structure that holds spiritual significance). Many pilgrims come to do the ritual walk around it three times in a clockwise direction. All around and in the winding streets leading away from it, a hubub of Tibetan life, along with many shops selling the requisite prayer flags, beads and general tourist wares. In spite of the predictable calls to come and see this or that shop, there is a real sense of peace around the stupa. One could while away hours just watching the people go around. Which we did.