The Museum in Patan

In the former royal palace, a museum of religious art has been installed with statues and artwork of the Buddhist, Hindu and Nepali religions.  The museum has a really great feature for us ignorant visitors: an initial wing of art that explains the symbolism of the poses, hand positions and other elements.  I've put this picture in full size so you can see both the statues and explanations in this one case.

Among the tourists, the faithful come for worship and blessings

As a tourist, I have literally rubbed shoulders with Buddhists and Hindus as they come to to worship at these very holy sites.  They are very tolerant of us and I'm happy to pay tourist fees to visit the sites knowing that the money helps restore and maintain the shrines and temples.  Here, Hindus gather blessed water beside a temple.

Our Day in Patan

Patan is just beside Kathmandu and though it has many important temples in the Durbar (main square), it wasn't nearly as crowded when we went yesterday.  This is one of the Hindu  temples.  The winged man on the pillar in front is a companion of the god Vishnu to whom this temple is dedicated.

Here's a view of the companion from the front:

The beauty and intricacy of the statuary and design are amazing.  the temples age in range from 200 to 700 years old.  Many are built of wood with carvings on on the lintels and supports.

Hanging out in the tourist area

Barb is relaxing on a rooftop patio in the Thamel where we had lunch.

My bags have bags

We arrived in Kathmandu on Sunday afternoon. The flight was fairly short but even so, we were fed a meal on the plane. I had the veggie meal which was Dahl, rice and cauliflower curry with cahpati. Not bad for $100 flight. Once we got into the airport we had to get our visas and, apparently, so did everyone else. Perhaps we should have sent those passports to Ottawa. 

We filled out our arrival cards, our visa forms and then an older gentleman came through and stapled on our photos. We waited about one and a half hours to get the visas. After that we needed to get our phone SIM and a taxi. A porter sort of attached himself to us and despite a decent tip we could not shake him loose. I realized that I inadvertently pulled out our rupees so he was going to try his damndest to shake loose some more cash. 

We piled in the taxi with me taking the front seat. I learned, in short order,that there are no lights, lanes are nonexistent and they definitely play chicken. Not surprisingly, there are many traffic accidents and such here.

We went out for a nice dinner at Le Sherpa restaurant down the street. Temperatures have increased so we were able to sit outside comfortably without sweaters. We were a bit tired so came back to Sam's apartment to chat.

The next morning, I crashed, sleeping almost the whole day. Suzanne and David, troopers that they are, walked down to Durbar Square and took in the sights. I'll just have to do it another day

More of the temples

They have amazingly detailed carvings inside and out