Patan

The New Year Party "tet-a-tet" style was a complete success, therefore January 1st started for us at about 11am. We decided to see Patan first, and then move on to Bhaktapur before it will get dark.

Patan is very much an extension of Kathmandu, which is about 20 minutes away by taxi from Thamel. As any self respected little place it has it's own Durbar Square and yes, as a foreigner, you have to pay the entrance fee here as well. The entrance fee does, however, depend on the significance that specific Durbar Square has in Nepal, so this particular one was cheaper than the one we saw already. 

The prominent place on the square is occupied by the Royal Palace. The ticket that they make you purchase when entering the square is also valid to visit the palace facilities.

There are several courtyards, some quite simple, but others much more elaborate, with lots of wooden carvings and gold plated statues.

The rest of the square is very beautiful and full of interesting structures, temples and statues. 

There were no lack of people here as well. At the start of the square there was a large stepwell where women were trying to get some water for their homes.

Men were mostly sitting around on the temple steps and doing nothing. Or may be they were meditating :-)

Walking around is still very nice despite already seeing the other Durbar square the day before.

Here one can buy all kind of artifacts, paintings and other types of souvenirs.

We walked among the stalls for a while because I wanted to find a pendant but with little luck.

I read in the guide that further away there will be some artists quarters, where most of the things sold at the square are made, so we decided to see if we can find a jewelry making shop.
Just off the square the area was still very nice and if it wasn't for massive amount of power cables, quite authentic as well.

Most of the space on the streets is used for market purposes.

As we walked further way the streets were getting more deserted and more residential.

We thought that we might be walking into a poor neighborhood but then we saw what looked like a tourist group, and decided to walk a couple of more blocks to see if they will lead us somewhere interesting.

Another stepwell - they are much nicer in India.

 From quite nice and new houses...

... the area quite quickly changed into the slumps. The tourist group turned out to be a group of locals going to some factory and we decided to turn back before something bad will happen.

Poor neighborhoods

On the way back, we must have taken the other turn and found a local old temple.

When the houses started to look new again, we knew that we were on the right way back.

Just before getting back to the square we found the street with artists workshops. No jewelers, just the painters, but it was absolutely interesting to see them create.

The number of tiny details is just crazy and requires a ton of patience to paint. After you actually see the amount of effort that goes into creating one of those paintings, the price doesn't seem high at all.

After our half-day excursion to Patan it was time to return to Thamel, pick up our backpacks and catch a taxi ride to Bhaktapur, a small picturesque town in Kathmandu valley that is listed as one of the UNESCO world heritage sights in Nepal.

Next: Bhaktapur and Nagarkot

Kathmandu: first impressions of Nepal

Since we had 4 days left of our holidays that we couldn't really spent anywhere nice in India, we decided to take a flight to Kathmandu in Nepal and spend the New Year's Eve there as well as the beginning of the year. With 4 days available we didn't have the time to do the trekking, but just enough time to see the Kathmandu valley.
When back in Delhi from Varanasi we had about 5 hours before leaving for the airport and initially we planned to walk around the city for a while. However, the train we had that night was frizzing cold and we didn't sleep much, so we decided to stay at the hotel we arranged at the beginning of the trip and just get some sleep before our flight.
5 hours and a couple custom's forms later we were on the plane and on our way to Nepal.

Our flight to Kathmandu was about an hour and a half long, and we got their just in time to still see the amazing Himalayas kissed by the sunset.

By the time we landed it was already dark. We noticed already from the plane that there were not so much lights in the valley. Later we learned that electricity is very limited resource in Nepal and that the blackouts are quite a normal thing to have.
Because it was already dark we didn't want to search for taxis outside the airport and found one through the prepaid desk. It was a bit more expensive but at least they brought us straight to the hotel without any detours and unnecessary problems.
The hotel we booked in Thamel was one of the more expensive once  but we figured that the New Year's Eve should be spent in style. So, for 60 Euros a night we got a whole apartment suit.
It was getting late so we decided to walk around a little and grab something to eat before everything will be closed. In Nepal, just as in most of India the night life is pretty much non-existent.

For dinner we went to one of the smaller street places with only locals inside and got some great fried buffalo momos for me and chaw mien for Dima. Here I also tried my first hot lemon with honey and it became my drink for the rest of our time in Nepal.

On the way back to the hotel we noticed how fast the streets were becoming empty...

Looking at the most amazing mountains on the postcards in the hotel lobby and regretting the fact that we don't have enough time to do the trekking.

The next morning we decided to start with a walk through the streets of Thamel and hopefully eventually getting to the Durbar Square.

Thamel is an old, very touristy district of Kathmandu with narrow, often unpaved, streets, numerous shops and stalls, and crowds of locals and tourists.

At some point we wondered of the main road leading to Durbar Square and found this place through one of the side alleys.

The dried fish reminded us about the fish people like to eat with beer in Russia, but didn't dare to try this one.

When we got to Durbar Square, some security guy stopped us asking to show him our tickets. His question came as a surprise and first we thought that he is just trying to fool us for money. However, it turned out that foreigners do have to pay to get in and the tickets were not cheap either, about 6 Euros. Ridiculous, considering that it's a square and not a museum.

The ticket was including the visit to the palace and we went in. Inside it turned out that you cannot take anything inside and photography is prohibited, so as before in Varanasi, Dima stayed in the yard and went in to see  if it was at all interesting.

 Dima was taking pics of me in every window :-)

Group picture of school kids. I wanted to ask if they are all from some kind of sport school, or that was their usual uniform, but they were posing forever and I didn't want to wait.

The rest of the square is full of old pagodas and religious buildings. Lot's of locals just hang around the square or sit on the steps all day long without doing anything at all.

I've never seen so many kinds of beans that people sell in one place as here in Nepal.

 ... and so much kinds of dry fish.

There are also many small stupas all over the city and I've been meaning to look it up what kind of significance they have in the Nepali culture.

Dima is waiting for me to finish my photo-shoot of yet another place :-)

 This is how the Durbar Square and the town looks like from some of the rooftops in the area.

Kathmandu is also home to the (one of) the largest Stupa in the world (or in Nepal, I don't remember anymore), so we decided to go their next. It's a bit outside of the main area and we needed a taxi to get there. You can get to it through one of the main entrances and pay a foreigner's fee, or as it turned out later, you can just go a bit further in one of the side streets and get in for free. We paid.

Lots of people are walking circles around it as part of their pilgrimage.

Another group picture.

The large Stupa is surrounded by many little ones.

On one of it's sides some workers were cleaning off or restoring the yellow stains. We were not sure which one :-)

Here, lot's of locals also just sit around doing nothing or...

... try selling all kinds of stuff to visitors.

After taking our picture together, we decided to go back to Thamel and to the hotel.

By the time we got back it was already dark and we still had to decide on how we were going to spend the New Year's Eve. December 31 in Kathmandu feels at all not like a festive time of the year. There are almost no decorations on the streets and people don't seem to be thinking about celebrating the year change at all.
At our hotel, they were doing the New Year's party and invited us to come. We decided to see what it would be like later.
In the end we decided that it would be a better plan to just have a late dinner at one of the better restaurants and stay in until the midnight. Our plan failed miserably, because when we started to look for one they were all either closed or in the process. Eventually, we had no other option than to go to the one of the still open supermarkets and buy some food there.
When we got back to the hotel I went to check on the party going on. It had only locals as far as I could see, so we made an executive decision to stay in and to celebrate with just the two of us.
We met 2014 with a cup of tea and a bowl of 5 minutes noodles and we loved it! :-)
Happy 2014!

Next: Patan