Around the Kathmandu Valley

The past week we've spent in the Kathmandu valley.  Our first stop was the busy city of Kathmandu.  It was back to a land of pollution, cars honking, and people trying to sell us stuff.  One day we took a nice walk through the city, ending in their famous Durbar Square (main square).  The city has tons of temples, shrines, and stupas (all places to pray) everywhere you look.  Most are hundreds of years old but they're just a part of life here.  People dry their laundry or sell food from the base of the temples.  At one point we passed a 5th century statue that was in front of a dental office with the sidewalk built around it.  Nothing to protect it!  The temples in Durbar Square were definitely impressive and beautiful.  Most are about 300 years old but some are older.  However, we were disappointed that traffic is allowed through the squares because it makes it hard to enjoy.  We were ready to leave for quieter towns after 2 nights.

We spent the next 4 days in the nearby towns of Patan and Bhaktapur.  Most tourists visit both places as a day trip from Kathmandu so it was wonderful to have it nearly to ourselves in the mornings and late afternoons/evenings.  Patan is known for its particularly impressive Durbar Square.  There's no traffic allowed so that made it even more beautiful.  The temples are built from brick but have tons of detailed carved wooden windows, doorways, and roofs.  Some of the larger ones are 4 and 5 stories tall and tower over the rest of the buildings in town.  The main temple in Patan had a huge line of women waiting to pray and offer something to the gods.  We spent a lot of time just watching the life of the locals. We also enjoyed exploring the back streets.

Bhatkapur had a beautiful Durbar Square, as well, but it was a little emptier because many of the temples were destroyed in a bit earthquake that hit in 1934.  We enjoyed this town the most because of the way it's been taken care of.  The streets are all paved in brick and almost no traffic is allowed within the city limits.  (Of course, motorcycles don't seem to have to follow these rules.)  All the houses and buildings are old and original.  We were also lucky to be there during the big rice harvest.  Most of the people are farmers.  At this time every inch of sunny road/courtyard was full of tarps covered by drying rice.  The women spend hours and days constantly raking through the grain and sifting it.  I thought this was pretty fascinating to see.  Also it was one more thing to take in on our walks around town.  It's nice to see how real people live and what the non-touristy parts of town look like.

Now we're off to Tibet!  We weren't sure where we were going next but I've always wanted to visit Tibet.  So we're not sure what to expect but we're excited.