It is dreary, cold and spitting rain this morning. Bummer. Although we can’t complain about the weather so far – we’ve been so lucky – all that good weather Karma is catching up with us now. After breakfast, we duly meet in the lobby and board the bus to head out into the rural area of Dhulikhel – ostensibly to see the Himalayan mountain range – but in this weather – that’s not very likely.
Our drive takes us out of the city on the ring road, and before we know it, we are in farm county – or at least what passes for farming county here. There are gorgeous green terraced fields, but with huge multi-story mini-mansions plopped right down in the middle of the fields. Sangeeta explains that some of these are single family houses, but others are apartment like structures for multiple families. 82% of the 30 million population here are farmers, so Kathmandu, with it’s 3 million population is the minority in the country – but then again, also the most densely populated area.
As we get further away from the city, we see more farmland, but we also see brick factories on both sides of the street. The red clay here is perfect for brick production, and we see the bricks in all stages – newly formed red clay, air dried slightly pink and kilned grey final product. It is really mind boggling how many brick factories there are out here – and more mind boggling, the number of bricks! Seriously – hundreds of thousands, or maybe even millions. They are everywhere!
About an hour into our drive, we stop at a little hotel in the Dhulikhel region, on the edge of a mountain ridge to look across the valleys to the snow capped Himalayas. Sadly, the clouds and rain don’t give us much of a view – except for the clouds hugging the lower mountains – which is quite lovely and definitely keeps us occupied watching the changing cloud scenery. But no Himalayas, not today. Although we aren't rewarded with the view, we are treated to snacks and coffee or tea on a veranda overlooking the cloud covered mountains, which makes for a nice little pit stop on our morning tour. After a bit, we all hit the restrooms, then board the bus for our trip back down toward Kathmandu to visit Bhaktapur, one of the three original kingdoms of the Kathmandu valley.
We take the same route back to the city (it is the main road that leads from Nepal to Tibet, which is about 75K away), passing by the multitudes of brick factories, still pretty farmland and oddly passed mini-mansions. Sangeeta also points out these Quonset hut looking buildings covered in plastic that are mushroom farms, which apparently is a large industry here. She also talks to us about the Gurkhas, and how they came to have such a reputation for fighting and security. Gurkha (Gorkha)was a small town in the southwestern part of Nepal, when the Kings of the 3 cities (Patan, Kathmandu and Bhaktapur) competed in different areas, all trying to out-best each other. Finally the king from the Gurkha area came to Kathmandu to conquer the city, and sneakily waited until the festival of the living goddess (more about her tomorrow) when everyone was drunk, so that he could win. Then he attacked and conquered Patan. Afterward he became more aggressive and started conquering other areas and his men were known to be very tough, very loyal and would fight to their death. Finally, they fought the British and Indians and won at first, but then lost in other areas and was finally forced to sign a peace treaty. But the British were so impressed with the King’s warriors, that they made the King give up not only land, but a whole army of Gurkhas as well. When Britain left India, they took half the Gurkhas with them and are still known today as tough and loyal warriors (and probably why cruise lines use them as their security guards!).
This discussion gets us to Bhaktapur, where we head to Durbar Square (every town has a Durbar Square where the royalty lived and the temples are located, which you will notice when we visit Kathmandu tomorrow and Patan on Saturday) through the old section of the city. The architecture here is lovely and old, and mostly consists of the red brick from the countryside. The little lanes of cobblestone wind around beautiful old structures, some with gorgeous woodwork around doors and windows. Although the earthquake of 2015 damaged a lot of buildings, there is also a lot of renovation going on, so we see both the damage and what people are trying to do to restore their homes. Sangeeta also schools us on temples and what to look for to determine which God to which the temple is dedicated: Any temple with a conch shell is for Vishnu, God of preservation; A trident, a bull or phallic symbol is means Shiva, God of destruction; and an elephant is the symbol of Ganesh, God of prosperity. Also, surrounding any temple must be water and a “rest house,” which is little more than an overhang or open air room in the bottom floor of a building next to the temple.
Walking through the old town we see examples of all these temple rituals and have fun picking out the different symbols to identify the temple God. Approaching the main square we begin to see more earthquake damage (but not as much as we’ll see in the next couple of days). There is lots of restoration going on, bamboo scaffolding holding up buildings and entire tops of temples missing. But there are still lots of amazing architecture to see, including the huge guardian lion statues in the square, the Siddha Laxmi temple next the 55 Windows Palace, with its ornate wooden window frames – all seemingly unscathed from the tremblor. We tour through the Lion’s Gate Palace, then go through the Golden Gate ending up in the Naga Pokhari, the royal bath. It is a huge pool surrounded by a writhing snake with an oxen mouth as a water spout. The detail is fascinating, but when we arrive there are a bunch of people there taking photos, one family in particular is hogging all the good shots! We walk around the pool looking at everything, hoping they’ll eventually leave, but they show no signs of giving up their space (Really! How many photos can you take? Quite a lot apparently!) Finally, a guy, who we assume is their guide, yells at them to leave so others can take photos – and they grudgingly comply. So, we all end up getting some nice shots of the baths without any preening, photo happy family photo bombs.
Afterward, we navigate the narrow streets, past the Vatsala temple with little left except the huge copper bell, past sweet little cats cuddling up with dogs to keep warm, through a little shopping area, finally ending up in the Taumadhi square, the 2nd most important square of the city. Here sits the Nyatapola temple, built in 1702 for the God Laxmi, and somehow still intact, with its 5 story temple towering over steep steps lined with amazing carved statues of Gurkha guards, elephants and lion protectors. It’s beautiful and amazing that it is still standing in one piece where other temples have simply collapsed. It is here that we are let loose for free time, and where we make a bee-line to the New Nyatapola cafe a few yards away from the temple. Upstairs, on the 2nd floor balcony, we sit close enough to the heater for warmth and order a quick lunch of sandwiches and omelets and beer – of course!
It’s a cozy little place to take a break, with only a few inside tables, and a whole slew of 2-tops outside on the covered porch. The views from up here are amazing as well and I spend a bit of time snapping photos in every direction to capture the whole of Taumadhi square. After lunch we split up, deciding to do a little shopping. As we head up to the shopping street, we pass by a young girl who tries to get us to buy a school book for her (a tout about which we’ve already been warned). She’s sweet and doesn’t bug us too much, as I tell her we don’t have any money and walk away. The shopping is mediocre – but it might just be our mood. It’s cold and rainy, and we’re not in the market for anything – although there is an absolutely magnificently carved 4 mast boat in the window of one of the shops that a guy is actually asking to look at. Oh my, that would cost a fortune – to buy and to ship!
Back to Taumadhi square, we decide to get out of the rain and wait under the covered porch of the restaurant building until our meeting time. As we are standing there, a funeral procession comes by, with all the ladies in their red sarees, under blue tarps or carrying umbrellas along with their offerings, and sweet young boys carrying pipes/flutes walking along at the end of the procession. They are ostensibly going to Pashupatinath, the crematorium grounds, where we will head next.
In the meantime, our little “school book” girl and a few of her friends are on the porch with us, the friends pestering me to buy these little purses “made in Nepal.” We are joking with them, saying, yeah sure, made in China, Nepal. Which they all think is absolutely hysterical. At any rate, I finally give in and negotiate for 6 bags, pulling out my money to which our school book friend exclaims, “You do have money!'” I reply, “Of course, just don’t tell him,” pointing to Ed. More peals of laughter follow us out into the square as we go to meet the rest of our group.
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