A DAY AT PATAN

WEATHER: Glorious and 21C

HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY: Patan

BUMMER OF THE DAY: The power supply is annoying

WORD OF THE DAY: Bargains

…and then there were 2.

John and I were the 2 last standing and he leaves tonight-home.  So we decided to use the day to head out to Patan, around a 20 minute drive from Thamel and have a look around there.  We met for breakfast at 9am at our ‘usual’ place the Florid Hotel and it felt strange, the first day we ate there, there were 6 of us, then the next morning there was 4 and this morning there were 2.  I will probably get asked tomorrow when I turn up on my own tomorrow where all my friends have gone…..  John and I get along great.  It is funny when you travel with people for 2 weeks how you get to know and experience things with people that will either make you good friends, or just become travel buddies that will pass in the night.  John is probably one of the smartest people I know and I have only used that line one other time on my trip and that was my ‘tentie’ in Africa for 6 weeks-Lisa.  There are people that seem to know a lot of things without seeming like a know it all and John Boy is one of them.  It was nice to have an intelligent conversation and given some thought to what I was saying and I knew that we were going to have a nice day.

My World Odyssey blog came up in conversation and I was in a quandary on whether I continue the blog once I depart Australia in December or to start a new one, as I am not directly going to Africa from home-I have 2 weeks in the UK.  But John made a good point that this is the end of my ‘World Odyssey’-no matter what, this is the end of the line for this magnificent journey that I have travelled for the last 20 months.  And what he said made sense.  Nepal was my last country, this tour my last tour-but only of this World Odyssey.  I am a traveler, I will continue to travel, no matter where I lay my hat and call home and as JB pointed out there is a beginning, a middle and an ending to every good novel and it is time to lay this ‘novel’ to rest and to start a new book.  Not a new chapter, a new book, and I don’t think that the other blog I had set up-Bernie’s Ethiopian Odyssey-was going to cut the mustard.  As I am now not tied to staying in Ethiopia, that blog really isn’t that universal should my circumstances change and I find myself in another African country.  I can now keep my options open and I really have to put my future in the hands of fate and just see where I will land eventually.  All I know 100% is that I will be in Africa-I am 150% committed to making this work and I know I will-it is just a matter of time and patience and opportunities that I am yet to see.  So I am going to make a new blog and call it Bernie’s African Odyssey and this will be the start of my new ‘novel’.  I like the way that they are all connected by their names and my Ethiopian Odyssey won’t go to waste as it has documented my last 3 visits and the 2 months that I spent in that amazing country in total.  So I have given myself a new job in the next few days should I need a break from writing my blog. 

I have had a lot of people tell me I could write books, publish my blog, get a job writing-all of which I am not sure of. I enjoy writing and if you look at books like Eat, Pray, Love there is room for books like that in the market.  But now that I am at the end of my journey I asked myself what was MY Eat, Pray, Love of my trip and I came up with the following:

My Eat: was Morocco.  I loved the Moroccan food and I ate lamb kofta out of tagines every day of my 3 weeks I was in the country.  Add a camel burger to that and some shisha-it really rates highly on my gourmet list of the trip. 

My Pray: had to be Sri Lanka and my introduction to Buddhism-what an impact that made to my way of thinking of things and looking at the world and was a huge influence on my tattoo that I got in Nepal of the Buddhist Wheel of Life…..

My Love: Obviously was Ethiopia.  Even though things didn’t work out it was a big thing in my life that I will never forget.  I could change that to Africa, as Zeme wasn’t my only Africa love.  I had met someone prior to him that still means a lot to me-so I think I may say Africa rather than Ethiopia-either way both relationships changed me.  I never knew that they could be like that- and both made me a better person.    

Anyway it was time to start our day.  There were always taxi’s located out the front of the hotel and we knew that the fare would be around 400rupee so we asked the price and were told the 400 price and JB wanted to try and get it cheaper, so we walked to the main road and tried out luck there.  We were told the same price and JB decided to just accept the price and we bundled in and headed to Patan.  Patan is one of the major cities of Nepal located in the south-central part of Kathmandu Valley. It is best known for its rich cultural heritage, particularly its tradition of arts and crafts.  Patan is situated on the elevated tract of land in Kathmandu Valley on the south side of the Bagmati River, which separates it from the City of Kathmandu on the northern and western side.  It is among the largest cities in the country, along with Kathmandu and Pokhara.  The city has an area of 15.43 square kilometers and is divided into 22 Municipal wards.  Lalitpur is believed to have been founded in the third century B.C. by the Kirat dynasty and later expanded by Licchavis in the sixth century. It was further expanded by the Mallas during the medieval period.  The city was initially designed in the shape of the Buddhist Dharma-Chakra (Wheel of Righteousness). 

The traffic was slow, but after 30 minutes we were dropped off at the main section of the city at Patan Durbar Square.  Durbar Square is the Palace Square of Patan.  Approaching the square from the south end you have the palace on your right and a series of temples on your left.  The Palace was built on the site of a fort that stood until 1734 and served as the residence of the Malla rulers of the then Patan state. It is divided up into a succession of courtyards (or “chowks”). Unfortunately only the last of these on the right (which houses the museum) is open on a regular basis, due to problems with theft of artifacts. Try peering through cracks in the doors to see what you are missing! The first palace building is Sundari Chowk which was constructed in 1647. The three-story temple on the palace side is the Degutale temple, constructed in 1661 after an earlier one burned down. Mul Chowk was the central part of the old palace and in recent times has suffered much theft of ornamental woodwork.

There were tourist police here and this was also where the ticket booth was located to pay our entrance fee.  It is a little strange with the payment as it is not fenced off, so you could bypass paying the entrance fee and take the risk of getting caught-which I am not sure what the consequences would be.  Once you paid, they gave you an entrance ticket and a yellow pass that you wore around your neck to let the ‘checkers’ know that you had paid.  I decided to just pop mine in my bag as I already had my camera around my neck and didn’t want anything else at that point.  As soon as we had paid, there were guides that started to tell you about what you were looking at.  Being a savvy traveler nothing comes for free and after quickly the price for him and checking with John we decided to say no thanks to the guide and just do our own thing.  This guide was persistent though, he had the ‘official’ badge, and he was standing next to the tourist police, so he seemed above board, but he just didn’t seem to gel with us and we tried to ditch him as he followed us into the first stop-the second palace.  The guide stayed near the entrance as we entered to have a look around.  The palace's central courtyard, Mul Chowk, is the largest and oldest of the palace's three main chowks (squares).  Two stone lions guard the entrance to the courtyard, which was built by Siddhinarsingh Malla, destroyed in a fire in 1662 and rebuilt by Srinivasa Malla in 1665-66. At the center of the courtyard stands the small, gilded Bidya Temple.  The doorway to the Shrine of Taleju or Taleju Bhawani, on the southern side of the courtyard, is flanked by the statues of the river goddesses Ganga, on a tortoise, and Jamuna, on a carved makura (mythical crocodile).  We were half way round the courtyard when we were approached by another guide and he was so nice.  He asked where we were from and we told him Australia, and he told us he has family studying at a university in Newcastle and he seemed legit, so we decided to take on a guide to which I felt super bad as the other guy was still standing at the entrance watching us.  I felt like such a heel, and I mentioned this to our guide and he walked over, said something to the first dude and then he disappeared.  So that made me feel a little better-no idea what was said-maybe they made a deal, either way I didn’t have to keep looking over my shoulder and feeling like I had done something wrong. 

Out of 295 Vihars and Bahils of the valley 56% of them are in Patan. The water conduits, stone spouts, Jaladroni (water tanks), artistic gate ways, Hindu temples and Buddhist Vihars adorn the city. The inbuilt cultural heritage like the royal palace, with intricately carved doors and windows and beautiful courtyards adorned with exquisite icons enhance the beauty of the city. Such art pieces are found in stone, metal, terracotta ivory and other objects. All these artifacts exhibit artistic excellence of the craftsmen and the whole city looks like an open museum.  There is a confusing array of temples and other interesting items on the left-hand side of the square. Again, walking from the south end of the square, you also see: the octagonal stone Krishna temple, constructed in 1647, a huge bell that dates back to 1737 and is still rung once a year, the Shankar Narayan temple, with kneeling stone elephants in front, two smaller temples dedicated to Vishnu, dating back to 1590 and 1652, the oldest temple in the complex, dating back to 1566, a stone temple to Krishna, considered to be a masterpiece, with some amazing stonework, the Vishwanath temple, with two stone elephants and riders in front and the Bhimsen temple, constructed in 1680 but with more recent marble additions.

               

Patan is renowned as a very artistic city and this was shown with a small market of about 7 super long tables and it was like an Aladdin’s cave of antique items, sculptures, pieces and jewelry.  I saw a beautiful turquoise and coral Buddha head and when I asked the price it was 8,000rupees which is like 95USD. it was beautiful and it was something I hadn’t seen anywhere else in the last 2 weeks.  I told the guy I would think about it, as we still had our guide with us and I could come back and shop after our little tour was finished.  We left the main square for our last stop.  The Golden Temple. 

This beautiful temple is an unusual Buddhist monastery situated north of Durbar Square. Legend has it that the Golden Temple was founded during the 12th Century.  Patan's Golden Temple is unassuming from the outside and majestic on the inside, with stone gates produced by the silakars whose descendants can still be seen working in the woodcarving industry.  Throughout the architecture and design, faith can be seen running through the rectangular building standing in support of three roofs encapsulating the richness and wealth donated to the temple with images of Buddha, Avalokiteswar, shrines and sacred spots where pilgrims can stop and pay homage to the many great teachers and martyrs. At the entrance to the old Temple lies a clock tower with four large gateways. The Golden Temple's doors stand wide open, symbolizing the acceptance of all religions, walks of life and faith in accordance with the poem written by Jaap Sahib’s prayer:  “The almighty has no country, no traditional costume, no mark, no form and favors no one in particular. The almighty is present in every place, on every side and in every corner; this universal love exists everywhere”. It is hard to believe that with all the peaceful serenity felt all around that history could have set this as the site for bloodshed most awful at the steps of this holy temple.  It is the interior of this building that one finds themselves transported into a whole new world. From the white marble walls to the beautiful marble inlays designed intricately onto the pavement floor framing the tank. You can view the love and respect of many pilgrims as they wash their feet and perform a clockwise ‘parikrama’, a processional walk that takes them around this beautifully surrounded tank. Within this tank lies the magnificent Golden temple described as a ‘jeweled casket’ floating in the amrit (the water of immortality), and believed that should the waters of the philosophy of faith be ingested a promise of life eternal is his alone. The waters of amrit are legendary because of its healing powers, vitality and health given to those who believe.  The Golden Temple was founded during the faith of Guru Arian Dev, becoming of great worth to the Sikh people mainly due to being the resting place for the original Guru Sahib. In the Nepalese Temple is a holy book holding over 7,000 hymns. Interestingly, the writers of this holy book are made up of Gurus and saints of different religions and social classes.  It was really beautiful and I love seeing the prayer wheels here in Nepal. 

This concluded our hour tour and because we had asked the price form the first guy, we just paid that and tipped him a further 100 rupees and then we were left again to our own devices.  JB had the Lonely Planet, so we sat down outside some shops and had a flip through that to see if there was anything else we wanted to see that hadn’t been on the tour.  We looked at the zoo, but it was on the other side of the city, and even though it said that the zoo was in better condition than what you would expect, I was not sure I would be up to see the animals in a semi healthy environment.  Now if they had sloth bears, I think we would have been there in a flash.  The last zoo I went to was in Addis Ababa, and that was really badly maintained and I didn’t enjoy my experience there at all.  The lions were in pens the size of a living room and the monkeys were trying to drink out of cans and water bottles that had been thrown into their cages.  Ugggghhhhh I just cringe thinking about it again.  While JB flipped through the book, I took a look in the jewelry shop as I was still on the hunt for a silver bangle and as fate would have it I found one that I loved and got him down from 120 bucks to 75 bucks.  He told me it is silver and at the end of the day you just have to believe them, it certainly looked to be in better shape than the ones I had seen earlier at the market.  The market ones look like the ‘fakes’ but you also pay a ‘fake’ price.  But at the end of the day, if I am happy with what I paid, it makes no difference if he has ripped me off or not and I walked out with a smile on my face and a new bangle on my arm, well actually 2, I also bought a cheaper one that had Nepali written on it as a nice keepsake. 

We were really undecided what to do but we were thirsty, so we headed back to the main square in the hunt for a place to sit and rest the feet while we decided what we were going to do.  This was my opportunity to have a better look at the small market and it is so hard to explain the kind of stuff they have on their tables but I love it.  It is like a massive Pandora box that some-one has opened and you just need to look and shift through things till you see that ‘one’ item that stands out and that you just HAVE to have.  Well it is never just ‘one’ item at places like these and after purchasing 5 things which I totally love we found a café that over looked the square and we headed up the 3 flights of stairs to get to the roof top, found seats that had a great view and then the one drink turned into lunch and 2.5 hours later, we paid out bill and headed back to the square.  We were on our way home-I stopped again to look at this turquoise Buddha head and the seller remembered me and then the bargaining was on.  As mentioned in previous blogs, I have found that the Nepalese aren’t big for bargaining.  I can count numerous times I have asked a price, raided my eyebrows but still shown interest in the piece and then that go back to work.  They don’t care-that’s the price-that’s what you pay.  Today has seemed a little different and I am not sure if it is because I have JB in tow today, but I got the seller down to 3500rupees which was like 42USD and I was a happy camper, it really is beautiful and I always try and buy one nice piece and this was worth the 40 bucks.  I have looked at 100’s of Buddha’s the last 3 weeks and this was the winner winner.  I had to borrow some money from JB, but I will pay this back once we got back to Thamel from an ATM machine.   

We made it back to where were dropped this morning and saw that there was a great view point on the opposite side of the road from a small temple.  So we climbed up there and it gave a great view looking back to Patan Durbar Square, the traffic that was directly below us and then we could see up the lane where there were hundreds of people all walking, sellers selling flowers and paints for the Diwali Festival that was starting tomorrow.  It was New Year’s Eve hype as people bought all the things they needed for the celebration.  Walking is the easiest method of transportation within the city as the city core is densely populated. Since pedestrians and vehicles often have to share the same road, traffic congestion is a major problem in Patan and this could be seen from our vantage point.  We watched the chaos for around 25 minutes and then went back to the main road, the car park of traffic and got a taxi back to Thamel.  The noise, the people, the sheer craziness of today was insane and the traffic was also slow taking us 40 minutes to get back to the hotel.  It was perfect timing though as some dark clouds had rolled in and as we got to the hotel the heavens had opened up and it started to rain.  It is amazing how much the weather has changed from when we were here 3 weeks ago as they head into winter here in Nepal.  We were lucky to have the sun in the morning and back to the hotel at 3.30pm for some cover for 30 minutes as we re-grouped and decided to head to Pilgrims (the magnificent bookshop) and have another look around there to help kill some of JB’s time.    

It was still raining when we left again and I didn’t think to bring my wet jacket or my umbrella, so we dashed the streets and made it with just some wet hair and a spray on the clothes.  The streets were deserted though with a lot of people staying out of the rain which I could understand as it really had turned quite cold.  The bookshop was a warm haven and we spent over an hour in here as we looked through all the section of the store.  They also sold postcards, quote books, there was a section of souvenirs, a section on jewelry and any book category you could think of was here in this shop covering western writings, travel, a Nepal section, religions for all over the world, children’s books in English and Nepalese, traditional cooking, the arts and that is to just name a few.  They also have a café attached out the back of the shop, so we stopped there for a tea to warm up over a plate of pokora’s to share to tide us over till dinner time.  What a wonderful way to spend a rainy afternoon.  As my interest for Buddhism has been awakened I had bought 5 books on certain aspects of the religion to take home with me.  I am not thinking of becoming Buddhist, but I enjoy some of the stories and the teachings and philosophy on life that I am willing to add the extra 5kg of books that I bought yesterday to my luggage and just hope that everything will fit into my bags when I go to pack in a few days’ time. 

Dinner was Italian tonight just for something different.  It was a delicious meal and just as we were getting ready to leave there was a parade coming down the street that had over a 100 people, maybe more, all carrying candles as part of the Diwali celebrations.  As we were on the 2^nd floor of the building, we had a great view as the parade passed us and the traffic mounted as they had to wait for it to move on.  The Nepalese are not the most patient of drivers and as soon as 90% of then people had passed the bikes started to merge in with the people to get the traffic flowing again.  We waited a few minutes as well and waiting for the swarm of people to pass, but when we made it back to street level, we caught up to the parade and were surround by local people, tourists, motorbikes and the parade of people as we all pushed forward to our own agenda’s.  We passed a small lane and JB pulled me out of the throng of people and said that the small shop that went too yesterday and bought some finger puppets was down there.  I thought that would be a great gift idea for the girls and met the owner of the small shop while we were there.  He had some amazing items that were all hand made out of 100% wool.  I saw this amazing rug hanging on the wall made up of over 100 small wool balls about the size of small bouncy balls.  The rug looked like a massive chocolate freckle but it was 1.5mx1.5m.  How the hell would I get that home?  They offered postage that would cost 60USD, which I knew was a fair price as Jess had sent a package home the day before and it was around that price-but I wasn’t totally ready to commit to the large purchase, so I said I would think on it and I would come back tomorrow.  But I did leave the shop with 10 animal finger puppets which I am sure the girls will love.  I have been a little remiss sending them postcards and presents on this section of the trip-so hopefully these will make up for it. 

Back to the hotel and it was time for JB to head to the airport.  The power was off at the hotel ‘again’ and I am totally glad I am not on the 5^th floor again, not that I am using the lift here in the hotel based on all the power cuts they do have but based on that surely they have a way of getting people out easily as it happens all the time.  Well I am not going to test that theory.  The good thing is there are emergency lights that come on in the room at night that must be generator based, so you are not totally in the dark with a bathroom light and one in the room.  JB didn’t need the rupee’s back that I had borrowed, so I got his bank account details from him and said when the power returns I would transfer the money to his account direct.  So with a hug and a thanks for a great day, JB headed for his flight home and then there was ONE.

I still had 2 more days to relax, a was going to try and see Kate for another dinner before leaving and I also needed to repack my bag for airline travel over the next few days.  Even though I would have killed to have been home straight after the tour, I am glad I had these few days to shop, relax and reflect on what were my last few days of my World Odyssey.  I am still not sure how I feel about that whole emotion just yet, I am not sure I want to deal with it till I am on my last flight home on Friday night.  But what a journey it has been, a life changing experience in so many ways and that will always be with me no matter what else happens in my life.