A few day back in Kathmandu and Bhaktapur
Trip Start
Sep 25, 2008
1
15
29
Trip End
Apr 01, 2009
Kathmandu,
Nepal
Monday, November 3, 2008
Luckily for us Kathmandu is repair central, unlike us in the West who'd just through it away and buy a new one, there are mobile phone and camera repair shops all along new road, the cities' main shopping street.
Unluckily for us, today was Tihar, which meant every shop was shut, we'd have to wait until the following day, which we did but then in under 24 hours we had the camera back and working for a fraction of the cost of a new one.
Working camera in hand we took a Tuk-Tuk for just 10 Rupees to Patan, one of the other 2 cities in the Kathmandu valley. All three of the cities have a Durbar square, which houses temples hundreds of years old. We spent the afternoon just wandering around the town, a relatively quiet place which made a nice change from the chaos of Kathmandu.
Next day we were off to Bhaktapur, the third city in the valley and supposedly vehicle free. This turned out not to be the case, although the centre was basically clear of cars, you just had to watch your back for the motorbikes.
The town itself is a maze of alleyways connecting half a dozen or so squares, including the Durbar square where we were staying. The family of a boy Sarah knows have a guest house in Bhaktapur and it just so happens that that is where we stayed. We had a room overlooking the square with a temple just outside our window. Reading the guidebook the next morning we saw that this temple was renowned for having the most erotic woodcarvings in Nepal and sure enough, there they were (not sure how we missed them before!)
The temple dates back to the 1600's and around that time they were having a population problem in Nepal, people were not reproducing enough. So their plan was to create these wood carvings on the temples to get people in the mood, I'm not sure how well it would have worked as most of the scenes depicted were not activities that would have led to conceiving a child!!!
The highlight of our time in Bhaktapur was the day we decided to go off on a bit of a hike. Irish John, from the rafting trip, was staying in the same hotel and the three of us caught the bus up to Nagarkot, a town at 2,200m altitude from where you can get amazing views of the Himalayas. From Nagarkot town we walked about an hour up to a viewing platform that was the very highest point reachable. Once we'd overcome our various fears and reservations about climbing the final 30ft or so straight up a ladder to get to the platform we did, indeed have some very nice views of the mountains.
Nagarkot is about 15 miles or so from Bhaktapur and we were planning to walk at least part of the way back. In the end we took the advice to get the bus halfway back down at which point the walking trail leaves the road and it's a nice scenic stroll back.
The walk took us through tiny villages and followed a ridge all the way to Changu Narayan, a temple dating back to the 3rd century and one which very few travellers visit. This is a shame, it's absolutely stunning, there are very few souvenier sellers and it has some truly ancient relics, including a stone carving from the 5th century.
From the temple the route back wasn't particularly clear, we had to keep asking the way from locals and were joined for periods by groups of school children. With the sun setting and our legs aching we finally came within sight of the temples, we'd made it Back to Bhaktapur!
