Day 3 in Nepal

Our travel plans for our third day included picking up our buddy Bev from the airport before we would all set out for a day of sightseeing outside Kathmandu valley. We visited two really interesting old temple squares, both were UNESCO sites, as far as I could tell. The architecture in these villages is really unique, I think. It blends Indian tradition with Chinese/Tibetan influence. I really like it! At least it was something completely different to look at!



We started at Hanuman-dhoka Durbar Square, the heart of the ancient city Kathmandu. It was built between the 12th and 18th centuries. Until the 20th century, the royal family of Nepal lived there. It is made up mostly of temples and shrines, both Hindu and Buddhist.



In Hanuman-dhoka Durbar Square.


Our second stop was in a city called Bhaktapur. This name means "city of devotees" and I guess it is a fitting name, because again the old square is full of temples and shrines, each one more elaborate than the last. I saw so many well-maintained "squares" (I'm lacking a better word), but in my opinion, they are more than comparable to the beautiful squares of the beautiful European cities that we saw last year. They seem to center on a temple, and there are tall buildings with convenient rooftop terraces to enjoy the ambience from the best viewing areas. These squares were really enjoyable in this sense. I hadn't experienced anything quite like this in India, so this was quite a treat for me.






These two pictures are from Bhaktapur.

The next stop was a hill station called Nagarkot. This is a popular place to go, as it isn't very far from Kathmandu, and it offers stunning views of the Himalayas. Sadly, there was a very heavy haze in the air the whole three days we were in Nepal. This made for limited views on our Everest flight, and the mountains were almost non-existant from the heights of Nagarkot :( We climbed up to 2, 175 M and didn't see a lot of any mountains, except for some terraced gardens.
We did get to try Everest beer, at Bev's recommendation. It's pretty good; I'd have to say the closest thing to proper beer so far! It actually had some flavor and texture.
After a cold evening, we set out for the Lookout Tower in the morning, about a 10 km roundtrip hike. It would have been amazing if we could see anything beyond the haze. Instead, we enjoyed the last time we'd see Bev on the sub-continent and the exercise was refreshing. Our breakfast at the hotel was filling and then we loaded up the van and set off for the airport for our flight back to Delhi.









These last 3 pictures are from Nagarkot.