Farmhouse to Bhaktapur by foot and local bus

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Our group is getting sicker. Raymond has had stomach trouble for a couple of days, Charis (from London) could not even go to the farmhouse because of health issues and later this day Emily (Melbourne Australia) would be very sick also. But anyway after a nice breakfast as an exercise we walked to the outskirts Bhaktapur to visit a very ancient and important Vishnu temple nearby. It took us two and a half hours to get there. First descending the mountain and then through the rice fields to go up another mountain again using a lot of steps. And it was hot! Emily turned ill here and she took a bus to Bhaktapur because she couldn’t walk any further. We walked the rest of the way and it got even hotter with a lot of descending and ascending and we lost lots of fluid. After the visit to the temple we went to Bhaktapur itself by local bus. It’s a trip of 5-6 kilometers and it was a very special experience! We waited for awhile on the bus and after it finally moved it drove for about 10 meters and stopped again. Then we waited for another half an hour until the bus was a bit more filled with people. At a certain moment we thought that the bus was full but it fitted more people easily! And we stopped quite a few times. More people fitted every time we stopped. I managed to ask a mother with a small child if she wanted to sit down in my place (‘Namaste, basnus?’ translated freely; Hello, would you like to sit?) and she understood it (yes!) and sat down. After she had left the bus a Nepalese man kindly signaled me to go back to my seat. We stopped a few times more and more people were getting on the bus still. It’s simply unbelievable how many people fit in a single bus! A mother with a baby girl got into the bus but there was no room for the child. So she was picked up and given to Megan through the window. Even the mother thought that to be very normal apparently. In the mean time people that got on the bus were actually hanging on to the side of it. In the meantime the mother just fed the girl sitting on Megan’s lap. We were really packed in that bus, couldn’t get any closer and Megan said, ‘Well that’s a way to get a hug in Nepal!’ It’s not really considered good behavior when you do that (hug or hold hands) in public… .

After we arrived in Bhaktapur (that 6 kilometers took us a long time) we had lunch and saw quite a few very ancient buildings again. After that we were brought to out host family in Bhaktapur. Even our guide Dinesh got lost in the streets so we more or less decided not to go out this evening ;-). But our host invited us (Megan, Raymond and I) to go into town with him after dinner because you get to see the real Nepal in the early morning and late evening when there are less tourists. Off course we accepted the invitation and we saw a unique honoring of the gods that only happens one evening each year! We ended this evening with a nice cup of Nepalese tea in the streets of Bhaktapur with several goats alongside us and a temple across the street, what lucky people we were.

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Photos

Temple at the end of the walk
The walk from the farmhouse found us at this temple from where we caught the local bus to Bhaktapur

Rubbish swept off the street
Bhaktapur, though not free of rubbish, was definitely much, much cleaner than Kathmandu.

Family of goats
This is the family of goats sitting next to us as we drank tea in Bhaktapur Durbar Square with out homestay host.

Comments

[Patrick]

Wondering how you are doing ...
Hi Jan and Megan, Accidentaly, this morning I thought about you and was wondering how you were doing over there. Only a few few hours later: PLING!!! Four new messages in my E-mail, because of your new blogs. Reading all the stories gives me the impression that you are really on an adventure (in other words ... wow!). Hopefully, you won't get ill and have a good time over there further on. Good luck!!! Groet'n uut Dörkum (Greetings from Doetinchem), Patrick Oh ... almost forgot: I will definitely want to see the pictures!!!