Nepal - part 1

The three Royal Cities of Kathmandu, Patan and Bhaktapur

As I was walking through Kathmandu, Patan and Bhaktapur, a feeling of solitude appeared for a brief time. Not because I was travelling by myself, there´s nothing easier than meeting other backpackers when one´s on the road, but because the Nepalis around me seemed aloof, a little beyond the actual physical distance between them and me. An invisible sphere of cultural protective layers hovered around. This was a phenomenon that disappeared as soon as I came in touch with people who offered their infrastructural services, such as vendors, waiters or guides. After a while it began to dawn on me that it probably had something to do with my place of residence at the time. Back then I lived in Calcutta, and Kathmandu was just an convenient one hours flight out of noisy, polluted constriction. Hard to believe for some, but twenty years ago Kathmandu was a climatic spa compared to Calcutta. So, here I was realizing the difference between being perceived as a cash cow (India) that needs to be sieged until surrender, and a foreigner who´s just looking at things (Nepal), thus having to be left alone in his weirdness. This circumstance has most probably changed in the meantime, because people who even have a vague I-maybe-could-spend-some-money-look, are cash cows everywhere. And here I was meandering through these wonderful towns, looking at century old palaces, visiting temples and sitting around having tea. The thing is, I really enjoyed being left alone. It was great to savor the sights, or to just sit there and do nothing.

The pictures have suffered tremendously in the past years. Tropical climate, moisture, dust and the not so well done digitalization process have all left marks.

Durbar Square, Kathmandu. The Temple to the right is one of the buildings destroyed by the

April/May 2015 earthquakes. The building between the White Palace and the Temple

is the Palace of the Kumari, the Living Goddess.

Here we can see why some buildings aren´t withstanding the force of an earthquake.

More structural levels are added onto top floors every once in a while.

Durbar Square. The building to the left is still standing.

Visible in the background also some interesting results of building activity.

In 1995 these quarters in Bhaktapur were not yet restored. Damages to the buildings, especially the roofs,

can be seen. However, these were the results of neglect.

 In the 1990s Germany sponsored massive renovations and restaurations, especially in Bhaktapur.

Unfortunately also here many structures have been destroyed by the recent earthquake.

A shot like this one are the ones I really love in retrospect. While the concentration of the picture lies in the background, the half cut-off head of a curious bystander appears out of focus in the foreground. There were only very few of these curious onlookers staring at my activity in Nepal, whereas in India I was sometimes surrounded by a whole village.

If you liked this Nepal post, you might also like the one about Calcutta.