Road to Nepal Arriving Kathmandu Part 3

Bhaktapur is a city-museum more than Patan. If Patan, the old market is made up of some streets in the area, Bhaktapur, more precisely, a good part of it is a city-museum,

with most buildings built in previous centuries. Here, too, they were victims of the earthquake - temples, and private homes, but overall the city is standing and looking good. And here they were involved Austrians May 20 years ago, paving the city and giving it that old atmosphere, from another era. The earthquake has rocked only residents, but also their design and great risk that it has Bhaktapur, like other historical cities, is the fashion so-called "earthquake-proof building materials" - concrete, glass, reinforced concrete, steel which probably lead to the construction of safer buildings (or at least so it says) but tottering old cities ... Obviously, Nepal does not have money for strengthening of old buildings to become "earthquake proof" technologies and materials exist but are expensive, and Nepal is a poor country ... maybe an international aid, but who is today interested in preserving the architectural heritage of other countries. Countries can and see tourism as a bringer of wealth business investing billions in their heritage buildings harder to give and others.

I arrived in Bhaktapur on the day celebrating the Nepalese New Year. Enter Nepal in 2075, according to the Hindu calendar, the local calendar. It is obvious that not all of humanity, regardless of religion, sets their schedules depending on the year of birth of Jesus, so just enter Nepal in 2075. But the Nepalese New Year celebration is relatively different from that of the Christian world. No organ Bacchus (and beyond), fireworks and concerts, but rather, the world and spend it in the family and in recent years with the emergence of a middle class began to leave in mountain resorts - in Consequently, all hotels in Nagarkot, edge hill near Kathmandu, where you can see the Himalayas, were full, full, full, I could not find any room and was filled with tourists Pokhara Nepal.

If his signs Kathmandu Thamel New Year just by enrolling chiolhanuri and everywhere wrote Happy New Year 2075, otherwise, you do not see the sign. Instead, Bhaktapur I read that it was some great events - that were built some floats that were paraded through the city then were given fire in a ceremony typical of many parts of the planet, to flush out the old year ... so I said ... let's go to Bhaktapur.

No, I was not alone. It all had the Kathmandu Valley by storm the ancient city. At the entrance in Bhaktapur, it was a sort of amusement park full, and the city was Multitudes. But cool was that people came dressed "Sunday", the best clothes, and that, especially in women, are in bright colors - a real fashion show, I would say, Indian (as saris are similar) ... in the central square in front of the temple Nyatapola, the highest in the valley (which miraculously did not fall) was a concert. We climbed and new temple, to see show up, but I stayed too long. Besides a traditional dance with a masked artist, came some musicians have said that they took the street (in Chinese shirts 100 rupees), singing something that apparently gave the public good, but there was nothing too exciting ... so we withdrew the streets filled with people dressed in colorful clothes and jump sites to find a restaurant as far away from Nyatapola Market, where I could find a free table. And found at the end of the main street, in the market dominated by other important temple of the city - Dattatreya. Obviously, we could not visit the famous window-peacock ... one of those gorgeous carved windows of the city that inspired an artist sculpted a peacock-shaped and which is the symbol of the city.

We returned to the center after nightfall. Concert ceased (not as new as Taman night jump decibels May agile), but locals still have fun - Durbar Square in front of the Royal Palace of Bhaktapur was packed with people, talking, laughing, playing something, it gambol ... dozens of in-groups in semibezna market full of light bulbs ... I searched and famous images of "erotic elephants" - a post that usually would have been a sculpture of a woman tortured or penetrated. An artist who probably had not seen in his life imagined elephants elephant sequence having sex as if they were people ... hence the name "erotic temple elephants".

I traveled to Nepal with the support of Turkish Airlines and buddy Raj of Good Karma Trekking , which I walked through the Kathmandu and whose homestay we stayed.