Patan

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Last weekend two other volunteers and I made a day trip to Patan's Durbar Square. This was much closer to home than Pokhara, in fact just a five minute walk from where we have to change buses to get into Kathmandu from Godavari, so we stayed in the village until Saturday morning. It seemed that the square was slightly smaller than Bhaktapur's Durbar Square - or there were more temples in Patan, as there was less open space. The collection of temples was still pretty impressive though, and as well as the usual tiered pagoda style wooden temples, there were a number of ornately carved stone ones. The Patan museum (housed where the old palace used to be) was excellent - so much more informative than the one we visited in Bhaktapur (although it was much more expensive) and we spent a good 2 hours in there learning about the iconography of Hindu and Buddhist gods, and how to identify their statues, as well as more about the Buddhist religion in general, and the intricate art of make metal statues. It was well worth the money, and as we went early we were often the only ones in a room. The gardens were also very pleasant and we spent some time sitting there before heading back to join the others in Kathmandu.

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