Tuesday 16^th October

Patan Durbar Square

Patan Durbar Square

Today we visited Patan (Lalitpur), this is where many of the ex-pats and diplomats live so the shops here do cater for this likely to make an appearance in my luggage! (sorry Ian), it is the place to go for golden/brass Buddahs and wooden ornaments which are very.  Patan also has its own Durbar Square and for its size it has a large number of other temples and shrines.  We visited the golden temple which is a monastery from the 12^th century. You are not allowed to wear leather goods here and you have to take them off.  The temple guardians are tortoises that potter around the courtyard and the main priest of the temple is a 12 year old boy who is in post for 30 days before handing the role over to another.  The priest we saw was playing on his I-phone!   We visited part of the Patan museum but after so many temples we decided not to stay here long, we were in need of a culture break.

Newari designed houses

Kite Stall-Patan

Flying kites in Bhaktapur Durbar Square

Bhaktapur Durbar Square

From here we took a local bus to Bhaktapur (30rs/40p for 1 hour journey) which is an old Newari town and holds the 3^rd Durbar square in Kathmandu, there is one square for each old Malla kingdom.  It has some of the best Newari architecture which is made of intricately carved wooden buildings, and the money they get from admission into the international heritage area goes into maintaining the town in its traditional style by training the locals in the trades they need to continue.  We spent quite a bit of time sat in a cafe watching the kids fly their kites for the Dashain Festival.  It was very reminiscent of the Kite Runner – they choose their kites and string type individually to get the best results.  We are staying overnight here because it is supposed to have a really special atmosphere here once all the tourists have left.  We stayed in a little guest house call the Golden Gate, to get to it we had to dive off the main street through small passageways and corridors and it felt very local and authentic.  We spent the evening having dinner in a lovely restaurant where the waited couldn’t believe girls could drink a whole bottle of beer let alone 2!  I love surprising them.  After a few games of cards and writing a few postcards we went for a nightie wander around the square.  There were various groups of teenagers marching through the town banging drums and cymbals as part of the Dashain celebrations this was really good to see and we followed a few to join in.  These noisy “musical” celebration continued long into the night and were started again early the next morning – love my ear plugs.


Bhaktapur