On our last day in Nepal Everitte and I decided to pay a visit to Patan, a city very close to Kathmandu with its own Durbar square, one of the Kathmandu Valley’s seven UNESCO World Heritage sites.
The city was originally built in the shape of the Buddhist Dharma Chakra, or Wheel of Righteousness, and is, if possible, even more full of beautiful old temples than Kathmandu.
The old part of the city is pedestrian, which makes a refreshing change, and made the couple of hours we spent wandering the city’s ancient cobbles a peaceful as well as a beautiful experience.
I am unable to let sleeping dogs lie
Patan is a city of carved wood – balconies, old walls, the struts of temples – everywhere you look you see beautifully carved wooden facades and figurines.
After a visit to a square with a rather garish modern Buddha statue…
…we made our way to the Golden Temple, a Buddist temple precided over by a series of young boys under twelve, each of whom fulfils the role for a single month. It is also known as the turtle temple as several small turtles apparently wander the inside at will – sadly we didn’t see any, though Everitte spent a long time determinedly searching.
Everitte looking soulful - he may have been having a religious experience... or he may have been thinking about masala chai
After the Golden Temple we made our way to look at a rare 5 layered pagoda:
A rare 5 level pagoda - one of only 2 in the Kathmandu valley
..and eventually we made our way to Patan’s Durbar Square, in my opinion even more beautiful than the one in Kathmandu (from the little we saw of it!)
Though our visit was rather rushed it was long enough to ascertain that Patan is a beautiful town – in many ways a more pleasant place to explore on foot than old Kathmandu. Our short trip was a lovely way to finish off our first visit to Nepal and I highly recommend it!
boy that water is green! don’t think I would be swimming that.
I guess I’ll just say it again—beautiful! Thanks for sharing your experiences with the rest of us!
I love your photos and the commentary that goes along with them! I so miss traveling when I stop over here. But I get to live vicariously through your terrific posts. Patan was stunning. All that carved wood, so much time and energy to create something gorgeous.
Love the pic of the bell. Really nice eye you have!
Thank you! That’s such a nice thing to hear – I always love taking photos but they’re just snapshots really.
Awesome photography, thank you for taking us along :)
Thanks and you’re welcome!
Once again another post that makes just wanna carry my camera go out there and explore a new street , let alone a new city !! :) thanks for sharing !! enjoyed it a lot and can’t wait until you bring me beirut again ;)
Thanks! What a lovely comment. New cities are pretty good, but a new street could be fun too – and much more easily accessible!
so true …. don’t get me wrong i prefer a new city every day !! LOL once, my school teacher said …”its time you stop looking and start observing” :) and its amazing what you see when take a breath and observe things around you!
I adore Nepal. The mixture of cultures and the influences from both India as well as China/Tibet are amazing. The people are some of the friendliest that I’ve ever met. Your pictures are beautiful, by the way!