Hugh: Bhaktapur is an old city not far from Kathmandu. Like all Nepalese cities, it has it's very own Durbar Square, along with several other squares. Unlike other Nepalese cities, the rest of the old city is also intact. Bhaktapur is best known for its special curd, called the "king of curds", which we sampled at every available opportunity. Yu...

The beautiful old city of Bhaktapur served us as retreat from the smog and noise of Kathmandu. There is not much to do but enjoying the nice wooden carved buildings and take an easy walk.

So here I am. Nepal. What to say, it has been this biggest culture shock of anywhere i've been to, and this is for several reasons. At the moment Nepal is just getting out of some recent troubles and civil unrest owing to some Maoist's knocking on the door of Kathmandu one day with a rather large army, so there are army people everywhere. There ...

This pretty, orange city is the second of the three old cities in Nepal. Kathmandu; Patna; Bhaktapur. One a day trip, Bhaktapur has all the antique charm tourists have trashed in Kathmandu. On the entrance permit reads 'Welcome to the City of Culture...Let us preserve our common heritage!'..let's!

After mooching around in Kathmandu's tourist enclave of Thamel (the locals think it's part of Europe) for a couple of days, we decided it was time to get back out and see the real Nepal. We decided to spend a few days in Bhaktapur, a short distance from Kathmandu. Bhaktapur was the ancient capital of the Kathmandu Valley and, partly due to a ped...