Often likened to Varanasi in India, PASHUPATINATH (pronounced Posh- potty -not) is Nepal's holiest Hindu pilgrimage site: an amazing enclave of temples, cremation ghats, ritual bathers and half-naked sadhus. The sacred complex lies just beyond the Ring Road, 4km east of Kathmandu - incongruously close to the modern airport, but fortunately sheltered from it in a wooded ravine. Together with the associated temples of Gorakhnath and Ghujeshwari, Pashupatinath is a heady cocktail of Hindu (and to a lesser extent Buddhist) proceedings, spiked with some of the most colourful mythology on earth.

The site's layout favours an anticlockwise circuit on foot, first around Pashupatinath's temples and ghats, then up to Gorakhnath, on to Ghujeshwari and back. Instead of returning to Pashupatinath, however, you might want to continue on to Boudha, about 2km further northeast along an unpaved road.

Pashupatinath is a relatively short taxi ride from central Kathmandu (about Rs100). It's not a terrible cycle , either: from Thamel, follow Tridevi Marg east past the Royal Palace, take the first right after Durbar Marg, then a left on the first main road (Kamal Pokhari), and follow that road over the Dhobi Khola and all the way to Gaushala, a busy, modern intersection on the Ring Road. The lane angling downhill from the northeast corner of Gaushala leads to a small built-up area (also known as Pashupatinath) at the western side of the temple complex. You'll probably have to pay a few rupees to have your bike "watched". Battery-powered Safaa ("clean") tempos , which originate next to RNAC on Kantipath, go to nearby Chabahil and will let you off on the Ring Road west of Pashupatinath. Boudha-bound Vikram tempos will do the same. To catch a bus you have to go to the City Bus Park, by which time you're already halfway there.