Over the last few days I have been out to Bhaktapur, it is a UNESCO World Heritage site because of the beautiful medieval architecture and temple complex. It looks now like a bomb site, the temples are all but completely razed to the ground. Just piles of bricks, and the houses are often without the gable ends so you can look right into the rooms and the walls are leaning out in a dangerous way. All the buildings are in such a poor state that not many are habitable , many are still digging in the rubble to try to retrieve something. In the newspaper yesterday there was the report of a couple who died on Saturday, he was 65 she 55. They had gone back into their home to retrieve goods and a beam fell on him and then the stones and bricks fell on his wife who was near the door!
The monsoon is gradually coming, on Saturday night we had a terrific storm which closed the airport for an hour as all the tents, tarpaulins etc. were blown over the runway.
On Sunday there was a huge landslide which blocked one of Nepal's major rivers , the Kali Gandaki. This is a big river and soon a lake had formed threatening the villages below if it broke out. Thankfully I heard today that it has found a small channel to gradually drain through the landslide so I think the danger has gone for now.
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