World Nepal Bhaktapur

Karin's Kathmandu Volunteer Adventure 2009

A trip to Bhaktapur and a day without daal bhat! Feb 10, 2009

Thanks to rehearsals for the school's Parent's Day on Monday, I was able to get both Saturday and Sunday off this past weekend for fun-time activities. I decided to meet back up with one of the other volunteers (Micah/Milan) for a walk around Bhaktapur ( a town just to the east of Kathmandu) since he is stationed pretty close to there. I felt very brave as I made my way there using only public transportation. (Of course there are no route maps or schedules - you just have to 'know' somehow. Being able to read the nepali signs on the buses would probably help, too ;-P). First I took a tuk-tuk (a 3-wheeled tin can really) to the central bus park, then asked around for the right bus to Bhaktapur until I was finally pointed to the right one. Bhaktapur was a really terrific town. The streets are quiet and clean and overall there's much less pollution. They have their own Durbar Square (just like in Kathmandu and Patan, which I'd already seen), and like in those other Square's, the architecture dates back to the 17th century for the most part. There are guys stalking tourists at the entrance to the town asking if you need a guide. I was able to brush all of them off, but this one boy about 10 years old keeps following me around. I tell him several times to buzz off and that I don't have money for him, but the little bugger is persistent. And so cute and polite too! I duck into several shops and stop at a cafe for tea and yoghurt (Baktapur is called the 'king of curds' and is famous for their rich yoghurt - which was very very good I can report), but every time I come back out, there he is! I finally resign myself that I'm not going to shake him, and he's a really nice kid, so I decide he can show me around and I'll give him maybe 20 or 50 rupees on my way out. We head down to Potter's Square where I meet Milan. This was one of the reasons I really wanted to visit Bhaktapur - to see the potters and their huge outdoor kiln. We sat and watched this old man using a makeshift, manual-power wheel (made out of an old tire!) turning out piece after lovely piece in minutes. I bought a small sugar bowl as a souvenier and we moved on. I also heard Bhaktapur was a great place to buy Thangka paintings, so our little guide took us to one of the painting schools (where he surely gets a kick back) and we sat on the floor with a few of the painters while they described the process for making these gorgeous, gold-layered paintings. They can take 45-75 days depending on the complexity of the painting and skill of the painter. I ended up buying one called "The Wheel Of Life" with a scary image of Shiva the Destroyer behind a wheel depicting, well, life - and everything in-between. At this point it was getting late in the day, so I pulled out some money to give to our guide. He insisted he didn't want any money, but that there was a school book he wanted me to buy for him. He walked me to a shop and pulled out a Nepali to English dictionary - which cost 200 rupees - way more than I was thinking of giving him. But then I figured, why not - ok, that's only like $2 in U.S. So I bought it, then almost instantly realized he was just going to sell the book back after I left and pocket the money. I had to laugh - I guess he deserved it, tracking me for nearly 5 hours - very clever kid :) On Sunday I had arranged to go hiking with a friend of a friend of a friend (Rob) here in Kathmandu (see - you don't even need the whole 6 degrees of separation here in Kathmandu). We headed out to Shivapuri on his motorbike - a really thrilling ride through the streets! On the way we made a brief pit stop to see the famed Reclining Vishnu statue. This is a large stone sculpture of Vishnu lying in a pond, half submerged, with snakes coiling up around him. People were lined up to give offerings of flowers and food to the statue, and the pigeons were also lined up to receive the offerings on Vishnu's behalf ;-P What an amazing site. We headed on to the forest and did a moderate 6m r/t hike up to a buddhist monastary on old dirt road. We sat outside the monastary eating a light picnic and listening to the service inside, with tons of chanting, horn-blowing, and gong-banging. It is an awesome cacauphony of noise! After hiking we headed to Thamel (the tourist part of town) for pizza and ice cream. Ahhhh - heaven!!! We walked around looking at the shops for awhile before he dropped me back off at my school. He invited me to dinner with his friends that evening, so we agreed to meet at a restaurant later that night. I'm glad I wore my nicest outfit, because this place we went to with his friends was F-A-N-C-Y! I was just in heaven, with champagne, good bread, people who spoke english, and rich food. And no daal bhat!! Just fantastic. I arrived back home feeling re-charged and ready to take on my 2nd week of teaching.

Advertisement