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| Himalayan Mountains seen from our hotel room |
Bhaktapur was the second leg of our journey.
It is one of the most culturally historic places in Kathmandu Valley and definitely worth a stop.
The architecture is impressive, some of the buildings date back to 1427 AD. They are well preserved and offer a glimpse into the past that was for me an incredible experience.
Life for the people of Bhaktapur is very much like it was many hundreds of years ago. They rely on ceramics to maintain their livelihood. You get the sense that somehow time has managed to come to a standstill in this little ancient city.
We spent one night there at the Thagu Chhen Boutique Hotel which is a cute little spot devoted to preserving the culture and heritage of the Newa people.
In hind sight a day trip would have been sufficient to see the city as there isn't much to do in Bhaktapur.
However it is a good thing we went there for the night because we had purchased plane tickets to travel from Kathmandu to Pokhara. On the morning of our departure we realized that the tickets were messed up. The dates and departure cities were in the reverse. According to our tickets we were supposed to be flying from Poharaka to Kathmandu that day and back to Pokhara. Yikes!!!!
The receptionist was amazing. I don't think things would have worked out so well had it been us trying to resolve the issues.
He got on the phone with the hard to reach Bhudda Air and explained in Nepali the issue. He was persistent and finally had our entire trip fixed at no additional cost to us. It could have gone very differently (sadness) and we would have been miserable if we had missed the opportunity to go to Pokhara. Thanks to God that he stepped in and allowed this young man to work on our behalf.
It was a bit expensive in Nepalese Rupees (a whole 1500 NPR or 15 US dollars) to go to the square but it was unavoidable since that was the whole point of our trip there.
Beware of all the "tour guides" offering their services. We went in the morning and had to deal with them which was a bit annoying. Later when we went back out for dinner there seemed to be fewer of them around and it was a lot more enjoyable walking around without having to tell someone every five seconds that you were fine without a guide.
I think also that the evening view of the city was a lot better. There was something quite surreal about seeing this ancient city at dusk.
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We definitely were happy to get away from the pollution and crowds of Kathmandu. It was a peaceful night spend in Bhaktapur surrounded by the Himalayan Mountains.
It is a must stop on your visit to Nepal.