Nepal.
Bhaktapur, was the capital of the Kathmandu valley during the 14th to 16th centuries. It has great architecture and large squares filled with medieval temples and buildings, cobble stone streets, potters yards, grain laid out to dry, ornate water conduits and shrines. The people here are mainly Newari and women walk around in the most beautiful ornate decorated sari like dresses with nose ring and shawls. A vibrant red seems to be the main colour. There are schools of Tibetan Thanka painting as well as many painting and watercolours of the surrounding scenery. Hundreds of pottery hand thrown pots sit out in the sun to dry and there are large stores of clay near their potters wheels.
As in Kathmandu one has to pay $10 to enter the main squares and there’s a maze of narrow laneways, passageways entered via tiny arched openings and courtyards. Almost every building has superb woodcarving and temples are dedicated to various Gods such as Shiva, Ganesh, Vishnu in their many forms and the sides are carved with many erotic scenes and wonderful statues of animals including Hanuman the monkey god.
Nyatapola Termple is 5 storey, 30m-high and I enjoyed a good Chai in the ancient café across from it so will post a picture of both near this so you can get an idea of the type of temples here. It has the legendary wrestlers who had the strength of 10 men at the bottom of the steps and then various animals on each plinth and finally 2 goddesses. See picture above. The picture on the left was made from the cafe and the woman was watching out of her window the whole time I was there and also much later when I passed back that way. People seem to mainly watch the world go by squatting in groups outdoors. One of the lovely things about the Nepalese is their affection for each other and their families. Men go by holding hands with each other, the same with boys, girls, older people etc.I visited the Musi
c Dept of the University, a very small most unassuming place where a woman I met (English) will be making a film of the traditional musicians there. One of them showed me his wonderful Sitar and played a tune for me. (see pic)NAGARKOT
One goes to Nagarkot mainly for the view of the sunrise at dawn as it is situated on a ridge and the view extends past Mount Everest for a 360 degree view. I took a local bus from Bhaktapur which was another hairy ride. There were no seats but managed to squat down on a low step surrounded by crowds including women with large nose rings, babies some of them nursing, baskets, purchases and people. I don’t know how the buses pass each other with the one on the cliff side tilting sideways to an apparently bottomless fall. People were perched on the roof tops and the bus filled to capacity as usual. Still it was only an hour.
I arrived at dusk and it turned dark while tramping up the mountain to a hotel with a good view for sunrise. Had no luck in finding a reasonable room at first and that was lucky because I landed in a nice hotel quite late and the manager was kind and let me have a very nice room where he promised a hot water shower in the morning (that did not manage to happen). The staff were very nice although it was cold of course since there is no heat in any of these hotels and guest houses. That’s a big encouragement for early to bed, a most unaccustomed practice for me.
Sunrise did indeed bring the sun but mist covered all but the top peaks of the snow covered mountains. Everyone was up and about by 6 am. No electricity until noon but they manage to make breakfast. I met some nice Swedish people who travel with a Tibetan Buddist Monk, a man who is close to the Dalai Lama and what a humerous, peaceful man he was. He laughed out loud long and often. He travels the world speaking on the work he and his team are trying to do in building schools, assisting old sick people to reach hospitals, paying for their care, having centres where very young children can receive food, care and kindergarden so that their older siblings do not have to stay away from school to take care of them while the parents toil. The 3 Swedish people were part of a foundation concerned with building such a school and they had visited Nepal many times and also Dharamsala his home base. I was again fortunate as they invited me to go with them back in their van via Bhaktapur, where we ate lunch, and on to Kathmandu again. As we sat at lunch a very large monkey strolled by before hopping up on the nearest temple.
Now writing this in Kathmandu where again this morning there was absolutely no water and there won’t be elect
ricity until 8 pm again. How do these people put up with it. Their little rooms look so very dark. Their children cannot see to study – I’ll put in a picture of a little girl trying hard to do homework out on the street. Some children are crying while they are having their hair washed in a basin of cold water or trying to wash. Yet people smile even while saying they are sorry, they cannot do any laundry today. Washing clothes is their livlihood. I just got back last night but am thinking of moving on to Pokkara tomorrow morning at dawn. This city is fascinating although chaotic, dirty and noisy but it is also throbbing with life, colour and most importantly people with patience and smiles doing their best to work when there is light. Imagine trying to run any business depending on computer use. How lucky we are I read that the peak water output is 110 mil litres a day while the demand is 280 mil/day and rising. Lucky people get 45 minutes supply on odd days. The water production capacity is eroded, with electricity cut off 12 hours daily deep tube wells cannot operate and there is leakage via rusty pipes that are over a century old and buried too deep to reach.
