Wednesday 17^th October

Pottery Square -Bhaktapur

Drying Rice in Pottery Square

We woke up first at about 3am when the Dashain cymbals and drums started again, but managed to snooze again until the alarm went off at 7.30am – I wasn’t strictly honest with Sarah about the time of the alarm, but I really wanted to see pottery square before the crowds came – I still feel a bit guilty about depriving her of her morning coffee fix for those 2 hours!  We walked to pottery square which is a part of Bhaktapur that really catches the sun and so the potters put out their pots to dry, and the women spread out their rice which has to dry in the sun for 15 days before being stored.  We sat here for quite a while just watching the goings on, we were approached by a few people and one family was really keen for me to take photos of their baby – made me wish I had a polaroid.  We had breakfast in Sunny Café which is about 5 floors up and overlooks Taumadi Tole one of the temple squares.  At this time in the morning the locals come to sell their fruit and vegetables – I still can’t work out how they manage when they are all selling the same things sat side by side – maybe it just becomes a buyer’s market.  We watched one man taking real time and care to display his eggs in the best way for a good sale, standing back to check how they looked etc all for 2 trays of eggs.  After breakfast we checked out and took a local bus back to Kathmandu.  Breakfast here is mainly egg orientated with bread – and although the ketchup is not Heinz it certainly hits the spot (sorry George mixing tomatoes and eggs again-don’t freak out!)

On arrival back in Kathmandu we ran a few errands – buying shoes for rafting, buying a yak blanket ready for the cold weather and I picked up the outfit that I had made from the material I had bought earlier in the week – which fitted perfectly.  Went to Jesse James café for a really lovely dinner and then to bed as we had an early start for our next adventure