Three Kingdoms in One Day

We enjoy the Diwali festivities and traditions.  We don’t enjoy the fireworks in Mumbai which are set off all night and are less about pretty colours and light and are more about the loudest bang for your rupee. For us it is a good time to escape the Mumbai madness.  In the past we have traveled to Catholic areas where Diwali is not celebrated as enthusiastically. 

The verdant terraces of the hills around Kathmandu

Following the vegetable man
on my morning run

This year we decided on Kathmandu which is still predominantly Hindu but a fireworks ban from the government means that the traditional Diwali practices are observed without the city sounding like it is in the throws of violent revolution. After chasing accommodation, we settled on two nights in Patan and two nights near the small village of Chandeshwori on the outskirts of Kathmandu.

Diwali celebrates the victory of light over darkness, hope over despair and from a seasonal perspective represents the Indian equivalent of a harvest festival. Diwali is celebrated over five days. The first day is the birthday of Laxmi and houses are cleaned and Rangolis are placed at the door to welcome the goddess of wealth. The second day consists of bathing rituals and henna patterns are drawn on ladies hands On day three people wear new clothes and welcome Laxmi, who is believes to roam on that night, into their homes.The fourth day is a celebration of the relationship between husband and wife and the fifth day between brother and sister.

Ada and I enjoying mutton (goat) momo's (Tibetan dumplings) for lunch

Historically, Kathmandu consisted of the “Three Kingdoms” which consisted of Kathmandu, Patan and Bhaktapur.  Now Patan has been reduced to a suburb of greater Kathmandu and, courtesy of Japanese funding for roads, Bhaktapur is a 45 minute drive away.

A stupa on a calm morning in Patan

Markets in Durbar Square Patan

We arrived in Kathmandu in the middle of the day and settled in to Hotel Swotha, a small hotel in a refurbished traditional home just on the edge of Patan’s Durbar Square. The area was wonderful. It is now a heritage zone from a development perspective but still forms the heart of the city and the centre of activity during festival time.

Ladies in traditional Newari dress in the Durbar square

Patan, part of the city of Lalitpur was known as the city of artists and this is reflected in the architecture in the area with the Hindu temples and over 1200 Buddhist vihars and other sites spread throughout the city and decorated with ornate stone, wood and metal carvings.

A local potter who helped to teach Ada to
throw a pot fro a few rupees

It is believed to be the oldest of the Three Kingdoms as Lalitpur was established in 3 BC and Patan is believed to have existed before this time. Legend says the the India king, Ashoka, established stupas located at the 4 charkra cardinals in 250 BC

The following day we traveled from Patan to Nagarkot for glimpses of Mt Everest and views of Kanchenjunga, Langtang, Ganesh, Manaslu and many other peaks. Although the day was clear, we had left a little late because I had gone out form my morning run so we didn't enjoy the view in the clear dawn air.

Kanchenjunga on the skyline

An old lady at Nyatapola

On the way back we visited the second kingdom of Bhaktapur, the Newa city devotees, which was the largest of the three Kingdoms and capital of the valley during the Malla period and before the Gorkha invasion of the valley who took control from the ethnic Newaris..

The pagoda style temple was distinctly different from the
architecture in India, even in ethnically Tibetan Ladakh

The centre of the city is spectacular with a square surrounded by temples, most significantly the pagoda style Nyatapola Temple to the goddess for prosperity, Laxmi. The stairs leading up the pagoda feature a pair of wrestlers, elephants, lions and griffon on each level as you ascend the stairs.  At the top are Baghini and Singhini, the tiger and lion goddesses.  Each of the figures is reputed to be ten times stronger than the figure below it on the stairs with the wrestlers being ten times stronger than a normal man.

Nearby was the temple of Lord Bhairab, the dreadful aspect of Lord Shiva. There is a point in front of the temple where animals are tethered each week for a sacrifice to Shiva. It is only during festivals that market are conducted in the square and, as a result of Diwali, the square was packed with all forms of stores and crowed with locals shopping for Diwali.

A busy market day. Lord Bharibs temple is on the left.
Fortunately there were no animal sacrifices to be explained to Ada

A stupa near Thamel taken during my early morning run
before the craziness

After Bhaktapur we travelled to Kathmandu, Thamel to be more specific, to hire a bike.  It was a shock when compared to Bhaktapur and Patan.  Commercial, crowded, dirty, unremarkable and full of tourists and Diwali shoppers.  We were not keen to stay long.  Fortunately I had been out on a morning run and was able to see some sights before the day became too crazy. Definitely stay in Patan.

After a couple of nights in Patan we left the city for a relaxing stay at Pauline’s, a small well run guest house in Chandeshswori on the rural outskirts to the north of Kathmandu .where I got out from some great bike rides.

Ladies harvesting rice in Chandeshwori 

Unfortunately, while in Chandeshwori, Kate finished her incubation period for Dengue Fever and came down with the initial symptoms of extreme headache behind the eyes, body pain and high temperature.

The start of the red spots, the rest of the
rash arrived later!

We discovered she had contracted Dengue in Mumbai, and was suffering from the initial symptoms and had to look forward to hair loss, extreme full body rash and ongoing body pain and temperatures for the next 10 days.

Ada enjoying the views