Nagarkot, Nepal

After Bhaktapur the Kathmandu Valley rises up into mountains. We read that, if you don't go anywhere near Mount Everest Basecamp, visiting small mountainvillage Nagarkot is giving you an almost as great mountainview over the Himalayas. And I definately got rewarded with some nice pics.

We took the bus, this time with people sitting on the roof too, via a tight swirling road up to 2200 m. high Nagarkot. While driving we noticed the air getting fresher and we loved the nice smell of pine forest. Higher and higher, with beautiful views all the way.

In his small village we stayed our first night very cheaply in Himalaya Heart Hotel, we didn't like the room (mouldy, damp, broken toilet, no (promised) hot water) except for the sunrise rooftopview and very good black spice tea.

We changed to New Elephant Head Hotel, which seemed a lot better, up mountain in a foresty green surrounding. Sunny weather and dazzling, though misty, views made us really like this place and Jaakko played guitar with some nice local guys. Now we know that the mountainvillages have again even less electricity (about 5 hours per day) so we just had to get used to that.

We stayed a lot longer than planned, the views and locals made us very much enjoy this extremely relaxed village.

 Himalaya view

 A cloudy day in Nagarkot

It almost felt like we knew everyone by face and made already quite some friends; mainly Nepali boys managing bars and restaurants that without asking made us come back. On our last night we found in our favorite place, the Hookah Bar, the best spaghetti of Nepal so far.. And our rooftop breakfasts are unforgettable with many types of birds and butterflies around us, hawks circling above us, looking down onto the sunny valley below.

Bhaktapur, Nepal

From Kathandu it is not far to Living Heritage village Bhaktapur. We took a local bus, which was very cheap, but then got a surprice payment at the entrancegate of the town; as a tourist you have to pay 11 euros to get in. At the moment you pass the gate you can imagine yourself being in Mediaeval times. Beautiful old buildings, literally falling apart or others overloaded with ornamental woodworks.

The streets are the place where many old Newari people spend their days. Men and women make gatherings, just sitting there, being extremely photogenic, in their daily traditional clothes.

Walking through the  buzzling old fashioned shoppingstreet we found only very expensive hotels...luckily we managed to haggle the price down in the very nice Himalaya Guest House.

At night we found out that electricity is not only saved inside the houses but also outside;  no streetlights make this town pitchblack after sundown.  (We get a little less than in Kathmandu where they get electricity for only 14 hours per day..) You can think it's romantic or nicely nostalgic but with vague lights, only stray dogs breaking the complete silence and dancing shadows on the ancient walls I expected Jack the Ripper to appear out of any corner. While laying in bed we got aware of another creature of the night; the humming stickman. He, in all Bhaktapur's nightly calmness, walked every night through our street with a limping sound of a walkingstick hitting the streetstones. At a certain moment he started hitting the wooden or steel doors of closed shops, one after another, continuing his slow pase. Meanwhile he hummed a surpricingly peaceful song, the dogs kept barking loudly and they sounded wild and ready for a fight. Due to this we created some homemade earplugs of toiletpaper to at least have some sleep through this imaginative theatreshow held under our window.

At daytime the sunshine nicely warmed us after the cold nights. Through town there are many squares with monuments and temples to visit. The government has limited the amound of foreign visitors that stay overnight to only 250 in Bhaktapur so at the end of the day we luckily could see the sights without the touristgroups walking, standing and posing in our way.

  Taumadhi Square

Durbar Square Bhaktapur

During our stay the people celebrated the Nepali New Year. This means: all come outside and join the streetfestival.

 One of the chariots

There was a wooden chariot-race, music (marching old men with flutes, drumboys), dancing women, sacrificial offerings and the 'grand happening' of lifting up an enormous tree in the middle of town.

 Women sacrificing flowers and food

This all happened with many, many people helping, chearing and screaming their lungs out for 2 days and nights in a row.

 Taumadhi Square on New Year's Day

   

Patan, Nepal

Our next daytrip was to Patan which has a beautiful woodcarved central square. The Buddhist temples are showing Newari architecture dating from the 14th - 18th century.

 Durbar Square Patan

Detail of the woodcarving
 

We did a walkingtour from Durbar Square that passed many shrines and temples.

Buddhist monastry The Golden Temple

 
It was nice to see the communal living; the town seems to be made from many multistory old buildings with in the middle small courtyards where the people come together. Most have a centered religious shrine, a well or a holy tree.

When you look around, you spot women sitting in their doorway working (laundry, preparing meals, handicrafts) or peeking from their window to watch their children play. Those children usually came begging for making a picture (after which they demand you pay them for posing!), candy and rupees.

The rest of Patan town is a mixture of modern shops and cosy small teastalls and kiosks.

 Mini-shrine protected by straydogs

Boudhanath Stupa, Boudha

On our four year anniversary we went to see heavens eyes - the holiest Buddhist site in Kathmandu valley. This enomous Stupa gathers a constant flow of pilgrims and tourists.

 Prayer wheels

 

Sacrificial flowers

A "funny" fact is that it is not allowed to walk counterclockwise around the Stupa (we ended up walking couple of extra rounds due to this).

Monastry

There is also many Buddhist monastries around the site. We visited a few, at one witnessing a most idyllic view of two monks playing with pet-bunnies in the monastrygarden. Wonderful images printed in our minds and peaceful the atmosphere felt in their silent presence.

Kathmandu, Nepal

Landing to K-town Nepal was far from stressless. We had prepared to customs by bringing passport photos, Indian rupees and filling out immigration forms. As we queued up to immigration officers we found out that we cannot pay the visa-fee with Indian rupees and there is no ATM inside the airport, but one outside. So we just walked out through all checkups and taxi touts to the ATM and started raising money. The ATM gave us only 10000 rupees while we needed 15000. So we tried to raise money three times only receiving it once. Luckily I had my second bank card with me so we were in the end able to raise the whole amount. And back we went to immigration officers but this time we found out that only euros and dollars are accepted - we need to go again away for money exchange. On our third attempt we were able to buy the required visas. (Later we discovered that the ATM had billed our account three times from the one transaction...)

As most tourist we also ended up into tourist district Thamel. We found a nice cheapie hotel "Holyland Guest House" for 300 rupees/day. The surrounding area is full of Nepalian shops selling hippie clothing, trekking equiptment and souvenirs. The whole Kathmandu seems to be full of pirated clothes and it is quite easy to find for example authentetic looking copies of Dr Martens shoes for around 20€ or fleece jackets from famous sportsbrands for 10€. (I got myself "The North Face" hiking shoes for 15€). Furthermore like any touristtown there are supermarkets, bars and restaurants offering all western products.

 Oldtown meets new city

Flower and veggiemarket

Compared to India Kathmandu is colder, food and alcohol is more expensive and air is more polluted (breathing might be harder also due to altitude difference). Also electricity is a lot more unstable with powercuts up to 14h/day (We really need candles here!).
 

Durbar square

To control pollution taxirickshaws are forbidden - all the taxis are mini Suzukis. This however seems quite useless as due to constant electricity shortage everyone (who can afford it) has a small diesel generator pushing out sweet fumes...

Foodwise Kathmandu seems to be pretty awesome with good collection of more expensive western and cheaper Indian/Chinese/Nepali food. The most popular snack seems to be momos (Tibetian version of ravioli) that you can get steamed, grilled, deepfried or even as a soup from almost any streetcorner. Another culinary speciality is Tongba, a hot millet-seed beer served in a mini brewing barrel. It tastes quite much like finnish "kotikalja" heated up (for non-finnish readers: think about warm, healthy, unfiltered beer tea...).

Nice hot cup of Tongba

Last days in India

Once again we ended up in Delhi - the home of some 13+ million people and some of the best shopping in the world. Our original plan was to go visit Jaipur briefly but as it seemed to be even more chaotic then other cities we decided to rest one extra week in calm Pushkar.

Nightbustime

So for our last days we took it easy, checked some landmarks and markets of Old Delhi, sent one more parcel to home and preparing to leave India behind.

Rickshaw in Old Delhi

Pushkar, Rajasthan

Countryside around Pushkar

No meat (but delicious replacements!), no eggs (but still pancakes for breakfast!), no alcohol (but everywhere bhanglassi!), no kissing (but having a private room!): welcome to holytown Pushkar. Being now used to Indians being mainly vegetarian but still using egg in many ways, following those easy Pushkar-rules is almost like being home again.

 

As we arrived to the busstation we were slightly disorientated without having a map. So we walked towards the lake, central point of Pushkar and by lucky chance ended up in Seventh Sea Guest House. Our hotel is slightly odd; it's the cheapest place we ever stayed (2€ per day) and we have a nice room with hot water & TV on 'our own' second floor. They have a restaurant but we've never seen anyone in there. There's seven rooms to let but we've only once seen (one) another tenant.  Most of the time we seem to be the only people in hotels premises.

Pushkar is not only one of the most holy Hindu pilgrimage sites (the only Brahma temple in India is here) but also famous for something lot more earthly - shopping. The streets around the lake are full of small shacks selling all kinds of Rajasthani handicrafts, tailors, jewellers and as we are living 21st century also plastic kitch items (mostly themed around Hindu gods) have reclaimed their space. We, not unsensitive for all those bright colorful crazy items, also finally bought some nice clothes to take or send home. 

 

Ghats

Pushkar is concentrated around the holy lake surrounded by ghats. As it is religious ground you are not allowed to photograph worshippers or wear shoes nearby it. This is kinda hard as stone ghats are boiling hot under desert sun.

 

Holi colours

Ritual-evening before Holi

Last couple of days there has been Holi Festival - a spring harvest welcoming. Or more commonly known as festival of colours.

 "after the party"