Congratulations! You've made it to the last Nepal post. Never mind sick kids and no sleep, I was not going to leave Kathmandu without a visit to Durbar Square. Luckily for me, John and Johnny survived their Everest flight and Evie and Sam were pretty well recovered from their bugs, so it was on to Durbar Square!
I just have to mention our one bad experience with a taxi driver. Most people in Kathmandu were kind and accommodating, and though some haggling was often required, we never felt cheated (or not too cheated, anyway). The taxi driver who took us from our friends' house to Durbar Square, though, thought he'd found some dewy-eyed tourist chumps. We probably look like an easy target, I have to admit.
Before we got into the taxi, we negotiated a price to Durbar Square. This guy took us halfway there, then pulled over and said, "Here we are! 200 rupees!" He obviously had no clue that we have all kinds of experience dealing with the autorickshaws of South India. We happened to know that we were NOT at Durbar Square or anywhere near it. (Rule #1: Know your destination.) He tried to tell us it would be another 200 to the square, at which point John had us all get out of the taxi and start walking away. (Rule #2: Know the fair price.) This must have been a sight to see. When the driver realized he would get nothing at all, he quickly agreed to take us all the way to the square at the agreed upon price. Back into the taxi and on we go. No tip for you! Ha!
Durbar Square is the center of old Kathmandu and is filled with temples and palaces and surrounded by narrow, crowded, noisy streets. The site is ancient, but the current buildings date to the 17th and 18th centuries. The largest building is the Hanuman Dhoka palace complex, which is a combination of ancient and more modern architectural styles. Here are some ornate carved windows at an older part of the palace.
Much of the palace was built in the 17th and 18th centuries, but part of it was constructed in 1908 in a more European style. Here's a picture that shows how strange the juxtaposition looks.
Across from this part of the palace is a huge open square that used to be the royal elephant stables. Now the square is full of souvenir vendors. I've discovered that I'm not so excited about all the carving and metalwork available in Nepal and India, but the textile industry just fascinates me. I found some hand-carved wooden stamps that had been used to dye fabric, so I bought a couple of those as my Nepal mementos. I got the price down to about a third of the original asking price. Woot! I'm usually not that good, but in this case it helped to know what similar artifacts cost in India. I feel like I got a pretty good deal.
Next to the elephant stables is the Kumari Bahal, home of the city's living goddess. Here's a photo.
There really is a young girl living here who is revered as a living goddess, an incarnation of Durga called the Kumari Devi. The girl is chosen from a specific caste and goes through a series of tests to determine her authenticity. When she's discovered, she moves into this building with her entire family and only shows herself publicly on a few ceremonial occasions. Her reign as the Kumari ends when she has her first period. Then she goes back to being a normal human being, and a new Kumari is chosen.
I couldn't help but be reminded of Ursula LeGuin's book The Tombs of Atuan, probably the darkest in her Earthsea series. The book is about a girl-goddess who eventually escapes her island palace and the cult that both reveres and enslaves her. Good but haunting reading.
After seeing the Kumari Bahal, we climbed the steep steps of the Maju Deval, a temple to the Hindu god Shiva. Just a note on Hindu temples: Watch out for the erotic art, and if you're an easy blusher you might not want to think too deeply about the symbolism surrounding Shiva and his consort Parvati. Let's just say it's all about creative powers. I didn't point anything out to Johnny and he remained blissfully unaware.
From the Maju Deval, we got a great view of the square below.
Our next stop was for a closer look at the Shiva-Parvati temple. Here they are looking down on us from the top of the temple.
At this point we picked up an unwelcome barnacle. The guy to the right of John in the following photo was pestering us to hire him to be our guide. He would not go away no matter how uninterested we tried to appear. Politeness turned to sharpness ... but we only ditched him when we went into a museum. I was almost afraid he'd be waiting for us when we came out, but he'd apparently moved on to some other poor soul.
The main temple in this grouping is thought to be the oldest structure on the square and was built about 1563.
We finally ditched our unwanted tour guide when we went into the courtyards of the Hanuman Dhoka, the palace complex. It's named for the monkey god Hanuman, who aided Rama in his rescue of Sita in the epic Ramayana. Johnny could tell you all about this. He was pretty excited to see the statue of Hanuman to the left of the entrance (it's covered with an umbrella and hung with flower garlands). The figures flanking the entrance are Shiva and Parvati mounted on lions.
Inside the Hanuman Dhoka is a very cool museum with artifacts (thrones, wedding and coronation robes, office and cabinet rooms, weaponry, photos) relating to Nepali royalty. The kings lived in the Hanuman Dhoka from centuries ago until 1896, but the old palace was used for royal events until very recently. The last coronation happened in this courtyard in 2001 on the platform you can just see in the bottom right corner of the following photo.
We saw some of the museum, but by this time the kids were more than done with being tourists. John was dying to get up into one of the towers, though, so the kids and I rested in the main courtyard while John did a sprint through the rest of the museum.
In one corner of the courtyard we saw a statue of Vishnu in his man/lion incarnation disemboweling a demon. Yikes! The statue dates to 1673. We also saw the Malla king's throne, a funeral litter, and a bridal litter.
After Hanuman Dhoka we spent some time wandering around the narrow streets surrounding Durbar Square. I've never been to Morrocco or Egypt, but I've always imagined the ancient streets there to be just like those we saw in Kathmandu: lively, loud, colorful, narrow and crowded. Part of our wanderings were in search of a bathroom for Evie. I am so glad my kids aren't fazed by Nepal/India-style toilets. And I'm glad I remembered to bring toilet paper and Wet Ones.
Durbar Square was our last tourist stop in Nepal, and it didn't disappoint. Early the next morning, we piled into two taxis (honest drivers, both) and were off to the airport for our return to India. Getting out of Nepal turned out to be almost as aggravating as getting in, but the trip really went pretty smoothly.
The only real incident of note happened on our first flight. You don't see too many Western families with young kids travelling around the developing world, so we always turn heads when we board an airplane or come tumbling out of taxis or rickshaws. Plenty of business travellers and wealthy tourists see us coming and run for cover -- or wish they could -- and I can't say I blame them, really. Who wants a 2-year-old kicking the back of your seat through a long flight?
It does bug me, though, when people make it obvious that they're annoyed by our presence even before the kids do anything. Evie was sitting next to a guy like this on the flight from Kathmandu to Delhi. She got into her seat and quietly colored until it was time for food to be served. Then she spilled some of her bottled water right into her neighbor's lap! All right, I'd be annoyed, too. But the way this guy spent nearly two full hours asking for more and more napkins and generally making a big deal out of the mishap (for which Evie, John and I apologized profusely) was just too much! As we got off the flight he made a big show of wrapping a sweater around his waist, even though by this time his pants were totally dry and showed no sign of the spill at all. Ack!
We had smooth sailing through the Delhi airport, though the flight was a little delayed, and got home to Chennai with all kids and bags accounted for and intact. Ashok was waiting with the car, and the streets of Chennai seemed homey and familiar. It was a great trip, but it's always good to be home.
I just have to mention our one bad experience with a taxi driver. Most people in Kathmandu were kind and accommodating, and though some haggling was often required, we never felt cheated (or not too cheated, anyway). The taxi driver who took us from our friends' house to Durbar Square, though, thought he'd found some dewy-eyed tourist chumps. We probably look like an easy target, I have to admit.
Before we got into the taxi, we negotiated a price to Durbar Square. This guy took us halfway there, then pulled over and said, "Here we are! 200 rupees!" He obviously had no clue that we have all kinds of experience dealing with the autorickshaws of South India. We happened to know that we were NOT at Durbar Square or anywhere near it. (Rule #1: Know your destination.) He tried to tell us it would be another 200 to the square, at which point John had us all get out of the taxi and start walking away. (Rule #2: Know the fair price.) This must have been a sight to see. When the driver realized he would get nothing at all, he quickly agreed to take us all the way to the square at the agreed upon price. Back into the taxi and on we go. No tip for you! Ha!
Durbar Square is the center of old Kathmandu and is filled with temples and palaces and surrounded by narrow, crowded, noisy streets. The site is ancient, but the current buildings date to the 17th and 18th centuries. The largest building is the Hanuman Dhoka palace complex, which is a combination of ancient and more modern architectural styles. Here are some ornate carved windows at an older part of the palace.
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| Evie and Samuel taking a peek |
Across from this part of the palace is a huge open square that used to be the royal elephant stables. Now the square is full of souvenir vendors. I've discovered that I'm not so excited about all the carving and metalwork available in Nepal and India, but the textile industry just fascinates me. I found some hand-carved wooden stamps that had been used to dye fabric, so I bought a couple of those as my Nepal mementos. I got the price down to about a third of the original asking price. Woot! I'm usually not that good, but in this case it helped to know what similar artifacts cost in India. I feel like I got a pretty good deal.
Next to the elephant stables is the Kumari Bahal, home of the city's living goddess. Here's a photo.
There really is a young girl living here who is revered as a living goddess, an incarnation of Durga called the Kumari Devi. The girl is chosen from a specific caste and goes through a series of tests to determine her authenticity. When she's discovered, she moves into this building with her entire family and only shows herself publicly on a few ceremonial occasions. Her reign as the Kumari ends when she has her first period. Then she goes back to being a normal human being, and a new Kumari is chosen.
I couldn't help but be reminded of Ursula LeGuin's book The Tombs of Atuan, probably the darkest in her Earthsea series. The book is about a girl-goddess who eventually escapes her island palace and the cult that both reveres and enslaves her. Good but haunting reading.
After seeing the Kumari Bahal, we climbed the steep steps of the Maju Deval, a temple to the Hindu god Shiva. Just a note on Hindu temples: Watch out for the erotic art, and if you're an easy blusher you might not want to think too deeply about the symbolism surrounding Shiva and his consort Parvati. Let's just say it's all about creative powers. I didn't point anything out to Johnny and he remained blissfully unaware.
From the Maju Deval, we got a great view of the square below.
 |
| This is a temple to both Shiva and Parvati, built in the 17th century over a much older platform. |
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| This temple is to Narayan/Vishnu, one of the principle Hindu gods, and was built around 1680. |
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| A street leading away from the square |
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| The Vishnu temple with a Garuda statue on the left and the Lakshmi Narayan temple to the right |
At this point we picked up an unwelcome barnacle. The guy to the right of John in the following photo was pestering us to hire him to be our guide. He would not go away no matter how uninterested we tried to appear. Politeness turned to sharpness ... but we only ditched him when we went into a museum. I was almost afraid he'd be waiting for us when we came out, but he'd apparently moved on to some other poor soul.
The main temple in this grouping is thought to be the oldest structure on the square and was built about 1563.
We finally ditched our unwanted tour guide when we went into the courtyards of the Hanuman Dhoka, the palace complex. It's named for the monkey god Hanuman, who aided Rama in his rescue of Sita in the epic Ramayana. Johnny could tell you all about this. He was pretty excited to see the statue of Hanuman to the left of the entrance (it's covered with an umbrella and hung with flower garlands). The figures flanking the entrance are Shiva and Parvati mounted on lions.
Inside the Hanuman Dhoka is a very cool museum with artifacts (thrones, wedding and coronation robes, office and cabinet rooms, weaponry, photos) relating to Nepali royalty. The kings lived in the Hanuman Dhoka from centuries ago until 1896, but the old palace was used for royal events until very recently. The last coronation happened in this courtyard in 2001 on the platform you can just see in the bottom right corner of the following photo.
We saw some of the museum, but by this time the kids were more than done with being tourists. John was dying to get up into one of the towers, though, so the kids and I rested in the main courtyard while John did a sprint through the rest of the museum.
In one corner of the courtyard we saw a statue of Vishnu in his man/lion incarnation disemboweling a demon. Yikes! The statue dates to 1673. We also saw the Malla king's throne, a funeral litter, and a bridal litter.
After Hanuman Dhoka we spent some time wandering around the narrow streets surrounding Durbar Square. I've never been to Morrocco or Egypt, but I've always imagined the ancient streets there to be just like those we saw in Kathmandu: lively, loud, colorful, narrow and crowded. Part of our wanderings were in search of a bathroom for Evie. I am so glad my kids aren't fazed by Nepal/India-style toilets. And I'm glad I remembered to bring toilet paper and Wet Ones.
Durbar Square was our last tourist stop in Nepal, and it didn't disappoint. Early the next morning, we piled into two taxis (honest drivers, both) and were off to the airport for our return to India. Getting out of Nepal turned out to be almost as aggravating as getting in, but the trip really went pretty smoothly.
The only real incident of note happened on our first flight. You don't see too many Western families with young kids travelling around the developing world, so we always turn heads when we board an airplane or come tumbling out of taxis or rickshaws. Plenty of business travellers and wealthy tourists see us coming and run for cover -- or wish they could -- and I can't say I blame them, really. Who wants a 2-year-old kicking the back of your seat through a long flight?
It does bug me, though, when people make it obvious that they're annoyed by our presence even before the kids do anything. Evie was sitting next to a guy like this on the flight from Kathmandu to Delhi. She got into her seat and quietly colored until it was time for food to be served. Then she spilled some of her bottled water right into her neighbor's lap! All right, I'd be annoyed, too. But the way this guy spent nearly two full hours asking for more and more napkins and generally making a big deal out of the mishap (for which Evie, John and I apologized profusely) was just too much! As we got off the flight he made a big show of wrapping a sweater around his waist, even though by this time his pants were totally dry and showed no sign of the spill at all. Ack!
We had smooth sailing through the Delhi airport, though the flight was a little delayed, and got home to Chennai with all kids and bags accounted for and intact. Ashok was waiting with the car, and the streets of Chennai seemed homey and familiar. It was a great trip, but it's always good to be home.
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