FIELD TRIP: That’s right – PC took us to do a wee bit of sight-seeing. We woke up a tad earlier than normal to catch a 3 hour bus ride into the Kathmandu Valley. On the eastern end is Bhaktapur, Nepal’s second oldest city. After a drawn-out, over-priced lunch (it takes a while to serve a group of 30), we had a mere 3 hours to look around, most of which was under a semi-guided tour. The tour was frankly disappointing. They had a few interesting facts to share, but otherwise essentially ran us from place to place, giving us very little time to enjoy each place. After the tour, we only had 45 minutes to explore and shop on our own. Then we had to hop on the bus for the 3 hour ride home. Needless to say, the day felt very rushed. It was indeed refreshing to get out of town for a day, but – it certainly wasn’t satiating, instead merely whetting the appetite for exploration. A few of my fellows were talking about their disappointment over tea the other day, but for them – they were disappointed with the town itself. They even went so far as to say they wouldn’t ever choose to visit a city on their vacations, not finding them exciting. I kept my opinion mostly to myself, realizing my obvious bias (ahem – in case you somehow didn’t know it – I LOVE exploring and analyzing new cities). And my disappointment with the trip was more that I didn’t have the time to properly explore it. A good excuse to go back!
As a UNESCO World Heritage site, Bhaktapur is certainly not lacking merit as a place to visit. Granted, I wouldn’t come all the way to Nepal just to see this place, I would recommend visiting it if ever you’re here! I will now proceed to Arch-nerd out on you a tad. The architecture is quite distinct: mostly brick with lovely carved wood eves, doors, and fenestrations. The layout is clearly pre-motor vehicle (as the second-oldest city in Nepal – duh!), with many narrow ally ways connecting large squares. I always appreciate such places. And there’s a hodge-podge of temples all over – clearly of different eras, all displaying distinct styles. It is said that the pagota form actually originated from Nepal / northern India, not China (someone fact check me!). So – there were many pagoda style mondirharu, or temples, next to drammatically vertical stuppas. Most mondirharu are peda-stooled atop grand staircases, adorned with numerous figurines. I’m determined to return at some point to pay for a real tour, so I can actually learn more about the architecture, etc. I’m certain there are many many things beyond the surface to be learned.
The town is also quite famous for it’s pottery, unbelievably detailed hand-painted madalas, and – it’s yogurt! Oh man, was the yogurt delicious! I’ve been avoiding dairy at our training site, not really trusting the storage conditions, etc (there are few refrigerators in town, but none of the houses have them, and most people buy milk from their neighbors). But I wasn’t about to pass it up here. I definitely tasted a bit of cardimon in mine. MmmmmmMMMmm. (Cardimon will always make me think of you, Justin Ryan :) ).
I’ll leave the narrative at that and let the following pictures speak more for themselves:
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