We jumped on the bus and the promised half an hour ride turned into an hour long ride. No problem, we had allotted time for this. Josiah started feeling sick the night before so it was Elle and Jehanna on a whirlwind adventure! We jumped off the bus when the man said Bhaktapur... And were on the outskirts of town. What we failed to realize is that Bhaktapur's Durbar Square is like a city within a city. So we started walking and asking locals to point us in the right direction. We actually took a really nice walk up some hills towards the square, stopping to take pictures at a pool enclosed by concrete.
What's amazing is that there are tons of fish in this pond. This wasn't a tourist attraction because we saw a lot of locals there, just chilling on the steps or feeding the fish. The fish in Nepal are so different than any fish I've ever seen--or at least the fish in this pond are different. They would calmly swim up and take the food in their mouths, no pushing or shoving, and then slowly swim away. Even the fish take it easy here! Incredible!
As we were heading to Durbar Square, the locals kept saying just go straight. At one point I turned to Elle and wondered if this was some cruel Nepali joke to play on tourists. Just keep telling them to go straight but there actually isn't a Durbar Square. lol But there was! And you couldn't miss it. We had to pay about $10USD to get in but it was completely worth it. Each temple or building was so fascinating and worthy of taking a picture of.
Elle and I headed down a narrow street lined with handmade paper shops, art galleries, pashmina stores, and various other handicraft type shops. We browsed in and out but nothing really caught my eye. I think I am going to hunt down a Nepali paper photo album so that I can scrap book my adventures when I get back. When we finally made it to Potter's Square we couldn't believe our eyes. It was raw. Clay, straw, potter's wheels--this stuff was being made before our eyes. We took pictures and video of different potters then one asked me if I wanted to try. Heck yes please! So I sat down and proceeded to turn a blob of clay into an actual piece. Granted, I destroyed it a couple times just with my thumb slipping but the man helped bring it back into shape. Elle got to do the same thing and made a pretty bowl.
Then we kept walking through cobblestone streets towards.. well we didn't know. We were exploring. And then we got to the temple. I really don't know it's name but it is breathtakingly beautiful. It has a perfect pagoda shape and has steep stairs heading up to the top. Stone statues protect its base and the tiers are wonderful to sit on to contemplate life :)
On the way down, Elle had the fantastic idea of jumping off the last statues platform. lol Being the special kid I am, I accidentally took the picture with one of her feet still on the platform. But I went up and wanted the same shot jumping. I was focused so much on pulling my feet up to make an epic picture that I didn't really think about the landing... lol I kinda biffed it. I think I made it look cool in the end but really I was falling face-first towards a cobblestone street. Awesome. Elle looked at the pictures after she was finished dying laughing at me and realized her foot was still on the statue. So we had to take two more pictures, though I maintain her feet WERE off the statue in the second one... lol So funny... The picture of me jumping off has got to be one of my favourite pictures from this trip!
We wandered around some more before heading back to our favourite temple for lunch. There was a cute restaurant in the shape of a pagoda overlooking the temple square. I ordered just a vegetable soup and we shared a plate of the best freaking fries in the world!After spending some more time just wandering around the temples, browsing through shops, and taking a ton of pictures, we started to head out. Just as we were about to leave, we saw our friend Pragun that had helped us the day before with getting around to the sites. He offered to take us to the bus stop so we didn't have to wander aimlessly again. He was on a motorcycle and drove slowly ahead of us as we walked towards the station. At one point, there was a long straight stretch to the station so he offered us a ride. Motorcycle is one of the last forms of transportation to cross of our list so we jumped on the back and rode down the road for all of about a minute. It still counts! He put us on the right bus and told us when to get off and how to catch the next bus back to our hotel.
The bus back was more crowded so Elle was on my lap most of the time back but I was so happy from the amazing day we had just had that nothing was going to bring me down :) We got back to the hotel and checked in on Josiah who hadn't really gotten far away from the hotel the whole day. Poor guy... Elle and I left to do some browsing and shopping--moreso arguing in most shops over how much the sellers inflate the prices for tourists. In the end though, we got some absolutely smoking deals!
We ran into Josiah after our shopping was done and the three of us headed to a nearby cafe for some hot drinks. Elle of course got hot chocolate, Joe got water with a ton of straight-up mint leaves throw in, and I made the mistake of ordering a 'milk shake'. Mine turned out to be a scoop of vanilla ice cream in a glass of milk. :P phooey. We stayed there for about an hour, talking about life and having Joe explain the strategy of cricket to us. I got lost on more than one occasion but overall cricket seems like complicated game!
Then back to our hotel room to bundle up since the power was off. I guess from 7pm-9pm you are pretty much guaranteed to have no power. Awesome :P That means freezing cold rooms... This morning we were supposed to go to church with our new friend but Josiah's really not feeling well so we decided to stick around in case we need to take him to the hospital or something. Tis okay--today will be epic too! :) By the way, I made a new album on facebook {http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=178661&id=549112159&l=9678f4ce87} so you can see into my adventures some more :)
Happy Sabbath,
ami tomake bhalobashi
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