All I wanted was to curl up and stay inside the comforts of my multiple blankets. Once I’m out, I let the shower gush out for 10 minutes until it was hot enough before going in to the bathroom to take shower. Oh well, so much for conservation of water & energy! Hay naku noh! I also need to preserve my sanity!
I packed my backpack with clothes that I’m going to use for my overnight stay in Nagarkot……as in 1 sweater + trench coat + woolen gloves + socks!!! Eh kung malapit na ba naman yan sa Mt. Everest eh di ibig sabihin sobrang lamig na yan no!
I started out from Kathmandu quite late, its freaking 9:30am already and although the sun is out, it is still very cold outside…..and I’m wrapped from head to toe! Hahahaha
Lugging my backpack with me, I went over to the Bhaktapur Bus Station (taxi from Thamel to Bhag Bazaar is only 200NPR). The bus ride to Bhaktapur is only an hour and I almost slept through it & God know’s where I would have ended up! Hahahaha Good thing, the bus stopped (it was packed to the gills!) and a lot of people got out so I asked for my stop and they told me to get out immediately coz its already Bhaktapur and the bus will be leaving!
From the bus stop it’s a short walk towards Durbar Square, you will pass by “Guhya Pokhari” and get an intro on the amazing Newari architecture. I just couldn’t help myself. I kept on clicking and clicking photos!
Visiting Bhaktapur is like being in a living museum. All around me were old houses still being occupied and used by generations of Newari families. Walking around the small alleys and cobblestoned streets, I feel more time-warped than ever. If in Kathmandu I felt like an extra in a 1960’s movie, here I feel like I stumbled into a secret treasure hidden from the rest of the world for hundreds of years!
I had to pinch myself all the time! I really can't believe that a place like this still exists! It's just so unbelievably beautiful.
From Lion’s Gate you can pay your ticket, the entrance fee is a very expensive 1,150NPR! But boy, it was really worth every single rupee I paid and more! I left all my things at the Information Center and a young college student, Alex, introduced himself as a guide. He is on school break from his university in Kathmandu. I normally don't entertain touts and tour guides but he seemed so trustworthy so I just said yes! He was a font of information about local traditions and way of life since he is also a Newari.
The square is not anymore as big as the one in Kathmandu probably due to the 1934 earthquake which toppled a lot of temples and buildings. Although not as temple-congested as it neighboring Kathmandu, the Bhaktapur Dubar Square is by far, more majestic and extraordinary!
One thing that will certainly catch your eye is the Golden Gate or the "Sun Dhoka", with its blinding yellowish color glistening in the hot midday sun. The gate also serves as an entrance to the nearby 55-window Palace which were both constructed by the Malla kings and finished completely in 1754.
All around the Square are fantastic works of art, from the temples of Cham Dam to the elaborate sunken water tank of Chyasilin Mandap, everywhere you look at you just keep on getting amazed at all the beauty surrounding you.
Eto naman si lola eh ginaya-gaya ang posing ko! Ayan, para na tuloy kaming twins! Hahahaha
The place is really insanely beautiful! It’s not a touristic put-on place but a real Newari working town albeit sharing it with a lot of camera-toting foreigners roaming around! It truly deserves being a UNESCO World Heritage Site!
I veered off to the famous Pottery Square where only a few potters are left still making clay pots the way their forefathers had done. The whole square is full of pots being dried out in the sun. Something though that will remind you that it’s not anymore the way it was in the past is the presence of souvenir stands near the square. I felt like it’s too much of an intrusion into the quiet majesty of the place and the artisans working there.
Just a few steps past the Pottery Square is the busy Taumadhi Tole. It is the oldest public square in Bhaktapur and towering above everyone is the grand Nyatapola temple, the highest of its kind in the valley. Built in 1702 during the reign of King Bhupatindra Malla, the temple is said to be so strong that even the 1934 earthquake in Nepal caused only minor damages on its structure. Oh well, that’s ancient architecture for you….sturdy, well-built and definitely lasts forever.
My guide told me he’d take me to Tachupal Tole after my lunch, for the meantime I had a very interesting lunch complete with a photoshoot in the background. I had a Nepali lunch set for 675NPR with the local Bhaktapur curd for dessert, a bit pricey but the food was great! And yeah, there was a bonus photo shoot right in front of the café with throngs of people watching the models/actors posing in the sun! hehehe
We went off in my guide’s motorbike and WTF!!! The Old Town is even more fantastic the more that you go inside!!! This is really crazy!!! So National Geographic photo opps!!! Lol
I passed by this old woman who grinned at me and posed for my camera coz she probably thought I was also a Nepali! Hahahaha only to realize that I am a “foreigner” when I opened my mouth and greeted her with a “Namaste”. One tidbit I learned from my guide, the locals normally don’t greet Namaste to say Hello but when western tourists arrived en masse (most of them coming overland from India) they carried over this greeting and the locals just answered them back and is now sort of used to it.
I can truly live here (but only for a week, maybe! Hahahaha), live in the Newari past and discover the traditions and culture of the Newari people.
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