Friday 16th - Bhaktapur

Most of the team left on the Silk Airways flight at 1pm, today, setting off to the airport around 10.30. Dave and Mike had another day  up their sleeves, and decided to visit he nearby city of Bhaktapur.

Kathmandu - or the "Kathmandu Valley" was once three separate kingdoms - Kathmandu, Patan and Bhaktapur. The trip by taxi to Bhaktapur drove east about 45minutes and it is all one urban area now. Much of the road is a new highway under construction, financed by the Chinese government, since beyond Bhaktapur it leads to the main Nepal/China border crossing, a few hours distant. But the present road was a mess, dusty and congested due to this being the start of the festival of Tihar, when many were returning to their home villages. The buses were full, frequent and often crowded on top as well as inside.

Bhaktapur is a World Heritage area and much of it remains medieval, retaining all its original architecture, narrow streets, traditional costume, women washing clothes in the street, washing dishes in the street. There are tiny artisan workshops and some city dwellers must still have countryside connections because many yards had piles of rice grain being winnowed in traditional fashion, just as we had seen way down in Chitwan.

It costs 750 rupees for foreigners to enter the square (about NZ$15)  but that's fair enough,  tourism should be used to preserve heritage sites. Away from the main square and it's ancient temples, there were less tourists, just a real, thriving city and its markets, and streets unchanged for centuries. It was fascinating. Mike succumbed to a street seller and bought a genuine ex-army Gurkha knife.

In the evening Mike and Dave decided to have a European style meal - a steak dinner, though they are buffalo steaks. A glass of wine cost as much as the meal!