Text 19362, 92 rader
Skriven 2014-11-14 05:18:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: Asia 277
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QR 352 DOH KTM 0445 1145 320 2AC

Ch. Monbousquet, vintage unknown but recent, was the red
on offer, not so prestigious nor so tasty as the Bon
Pasteur. It was slightly green, with earth and root notes
along with decent acid and tannin - it'll go far and will
be pleasant once the fruit comes back.

An Arabic breakfast started with a blintzlike thing with
halloumi cheese and mint, a turnover with tomato stuff,
and crudites: olives, tomatoes, cucumbers. That was just
the beginning, but I told the FA that I didn't care which
main course she brought, but she misunderstood me and
didn't bring one at all, which was okay; I just sucked
down a couple glasses of Bordeaux and went to sleep.

Immigration at KTM was pretty easy - as we were among the
first down the stairs (again) and into the building, they
were just opening up the line: you pay your money, get your
visa, then it's off into the bright but cold world, where
amid the madding crowd a driver from the hotel, holding a
placard with our names, rescued us and our bags.

It's an interesting almost hour ride to Bhaktapur, one of
the gem sites of Nepal. You get the feeling you're in a
slightly poorer India, which is disheartening, but the
people don't seem too put upon, and we didn't get quite
the feeling of domestic economic inequality - here, we
were the rich ones, nobody else.

There are now two Shiva Guesthouses, one right outside
the city gates, the other right on the Durbar Square (a
generic name for a plaza filled with temples adjacent to
a royal palace, I am told; there are three in Nepal). We
parked at the one and then paid our admission to the
pedestrian-friendly enclosed city and trundled our bags
to the other one, which has a beautiful if rather noisy
location right by the bell that gets rung all night every
night by merit-seekers, drunks, and other obnoxious types.

We spent the next couple days exploring town, all of which
is a UNESCO-designated site. As we were there anyway with a
week pass, it was a leisurely and uncoordinated explore. We
spent an inordinate percentage of our time hanging about the
Durbar Square near the hotel, which sounds unadventurous,
but actually it's the best of cultural Nepal within a few
acres' space; here's the tourist brochure description of the
buildings on the square -

 Lions Gate, 1700AD Lions carvings
 - sort of underwhelming, I mean, nice work, but I don't
   see why the stonecarvers' hands were cut off after
   they completed the sculptures (supposedly by royal
   edict so nothing so fine would ever be made again).
   I guess my impression might be colored by the dozens of
   rowdy schoolchildren swarming around it while we were
   there

 The Golden Gate, decorated gate of Kali
 - rather small, rather ornate, notable for a guy with a
   machine gun standing guard. He let all and sundry pass,
   so one didn't get much of a special feeling from being
   allowed in (there's the palace and a Hindu temple behind)

 The Palace of Fifty-five Windows, Palace for 1450AD
 - I couldn't see the details of these, as the supposedly
   nicely were too carved ones were too high, and my
   eyesight didn't allow. The photos on the Internet are
   pretty impressive, though

 The Statue of King Bhupatindra Malla Batsala Temple
 - notable for a big bell that got rung frequently through
   the day and more at night, to our discomfiture, as it
   was right outside our room; objectively, though, a
   really fine piece of architecture

 The Pashupati Temple, a copy from Kathmandu
 - copy or not, this was most impressive, especially
   considering that all the copies were hand sculpted
   probably from drawings.

Somewhat of a contrast is the next square over, Taumadhi,
which is dominated by a multi-story temple and surrounded
with tourist stuff. The motor scooters really zoom around
here, in contrast to the Durbar Square, where at least some
respect is paid to the no-vehicle status of the town (it
seems clear that scooters are popularly not regarded as
motorized vehicles).

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