Nagarkot Tour

We leave Kathmandu after lunch and break the drive at Bhaktapur Durbar Square, where two hours is enough to take in the Fifty-Five Window Palace, the Golden Gate and Nyatapola - the tallest temple in Nepal, five storeys on a stepped plinth guarded by pairs of wrestlers, elephants, lions, griffins and goddesses - and to watch the potters still working in the open at Pottery Square. From Bhaktapur the road climbs the eastern rim to Nagarkot at 2,175m, arriving with time in hand before the light starts to go off the peaks. Your hotel is chosen for the view rather than the name, so the mountains are visible from the room and the terrace. Nothing on this trip asks anything of you physically - there is no walking at all unless you want it - which makes it a good first or last night of a longer journey, and a gentle introduction to the idea of the Himalaya before going anywhere near them.

We are outside before six. As the sun comes up the northern horizon lights in sequence, west to east, and on the clearest winter mornings Everest itself is visible to the north-east, small but unmistakable, with Ganesh Himal, Langtang and Dorje Lakpa much closer and far larger in the frame. The whole thing takes about forty minutes and is over by the time most people have finished their first cup of tea. Breakfast afterwards is at leisure, and there is no hurry to leave. On the way back down we can stop at Changunarayan, the oldest temple in the valley, or continue straight to Kathmandu - either way you are back in the city by late morning with the rest of the day free.