I've set the alarm quite early in the morning. I had big plans in that day. I was thinking to visit a Kali temple situated 20 km away from Kathamndu and Patan. But, when I woke up in the morning around 5:45 it was still dark outside, so I slept 45 more minutes. At around 7 o'clock in a nice cool morning I was outside searching for a bicycle to rent. I found one just around the corner. It was only 100 rupees (a bit more than one euro) per day for a chinese mountain bike.
I jumped on the bike and let's go. It was early in the morning and the narrow streets of the old Kathmandu were quite crowded. Once again I’ve crossed the checking point for Durbar Square without being asked for a ticket and I kept going down south of the city. The Bogamati river flows between Khatmandu and Patan. But I didn’t want to cross the bridge to Patan. It was another one south East of Khatmandu that I wanted to cross. But I didn’t manage to find it. At same point I found myself in a kind of dumping ground with garbage, dozens of dogs around me and slams everywhere. Some of Khatmandu’s poorest and lowest communities live here. I went farther as fast as possible to pass this trash hell, but finally I’ve managed to arrive nowhere. A dead end was in front of me. I had to come back through all that mess and start asking around. But nobody seems to know where was that crossing point. On the map was there just in front of me, but I couldn’t find it. Finally I gave up and I went farther west and I crossed the river using another bridge.
After 20 minutes I was on a nice small road far away of Khatmandu’s traffic. The road goes up and soon cycling become very difficult. The slope inclination was bigger and bigger and most of the time I was walking rather than cycling. It was a valley along the Bogamati river which was on my left. I passed some newari villages with a lot of nepalis staring at me. Not so many foreigners come here cycling on this damn hill. Finally I reached Pharping, a small newari town just 3 km away of Dakshinkali, my final destination. In Lonely Planet guid was written about it as a pilgrimage site for both buddhists and hindus. But it wasn’t so interesting. A lot of new Tibetan monasteries and some hindu temples. And after a shor break I went farther to Dakshinkali.
Dakshinkali is quite isolated. Situated between two hills and at the confluence of two rivers, Dakshinkali is a hindu temple dedicated to the bloody goddess Kali. Here is the place with Nepal’s biggest number of animal sacrifices. They slit the throats of the animals (buffalos, goats, pigs, lambs, chickens or ducks) whit knives or they chop off the heads and hold the decapitated animal so a stream of blood goes toward the Kali. The sacrifice will please the goddess and is interpreted also as doing the animal a favor by releasing him from a life of suffering and giving him a chance to be reborn as a human being. It can be sacrificed only an uncastrated male. I wasn’t there in a sacrifice day (in every week on Tuesday and Saturday) so I haven’t seen any of these sacrifices. The temple is very small and it has no walls, just a small fence around it, so u can see inside the Kali’s image. U can guess that here most of the time is a lot of blood, because the ground in front of the temple it’s almost covered with flies and has a reddish nuance.
Actually there is nothing special with this temple apart of the sacrifice, and I was thinking that I came there cycling so hard for almost nothing. The way back to Khatmandu was much more easier, except the climb from Dakshinkali to Pharping which was the most difficult part from the whole itinerary. The sky was cloudy and it was very nice to cycle back to Khatmandu. The only problem was the bike saddle. It was very uncomfortable and my bottom part wasn’t so happy and complained a lot.
When I was close to Khatmandu I took the right road to Patan. It started raining when I arrived in Patan and I was very hungry, so I stopped in the center of the city for a quick lunch. In front of the restaurant on the road some people were working to raise a strange construction: a kind of cart with huge wheels and a thin but tall tower on top of it. It was about 10 – 15 meters high, and somebody told me that there is a festival in the city and this cart will be dragged around the narrow streets of Patan.
Patan Durbar Square is my favorite among all three of Durbar Squares from Khatmandu Valley (Khatmandu, Patan, Bhaktapur). Here are the biggest number of temples and statues. All these temples face the former Royal Palace residence. Now, one section from this building was renovated and houses the best nepali museum. The glory of the square was during the Malla kings (14th to 18th centuries). The entry fee is 200 rs for foreigners and is payable at the southern end of Durbar Square. I arrived in Durbar Square from west side and I was thinking that doesn't make sense to go until the south end only to pay the entrace fee. Actually I was thinking that doesn’t make sense for me to pay at all. :D I don't mind paying but I hate this indian/nepali policy in which the price for foreigners is 20 times or even more bigger than the fee for locals. So, I didn't pay and nobody asked me about ticket. Only when I entered in the square a guide offered me his services and after I refused him he told me to go and buy a ticket from the south part. „Not right now.. First I want to see north part of the square and afterwards I'm going to south part to buy the ticket", I told him.
There are around 15 temples in the square, most of them with newari architecture. The three-storey Bhimsen Temple situated at the north end of Durbar Square is dedicated to the god of trade and business. Maybe because of this it's very weell-kept. Krishna Mandir has an Indian influence, unlike the near by Newari multiroofed pagoda temples. The temple is dedicated to Krishna an incarnation of Vishnu. In front of the temple sitting kneeled with folded arms on top of a column is the man-bird Garda, the god’s vehicle. Krishna Temple an octagonal stone temple is also situated in front of the palace and has two stone lions in front of the entrance.
Facing the former Royal Palace is a tall column, topped with a statue of King Yoganarendra Malla (1684 – 1705) and his queens. The king is represented kneeling and is protected by the hood of a cobra. On the cobra’s head is a bird figure. The legend says that as long as the bird remains there, the king may still return to his palace. A door and a window of the palace are always kept open for the return of the king.
Patan Museum is situated in a section of the palace around Keshav Narayan Chowk. The entrance for foreigners is 250rs and it’s said that is the best museum from Nepal. The main exponents of the museum are religious hindu and buddhist sculptures. And here one can find very detailed explications about hindu mythology. Who is Shiva and Vishnu? What is a Shiva lingam? What vehicles and consorts the gods have? U can find here answers for these questions along with others about buddhism. I found it very interesting from this point of view. But I was very disappointed because I couldn’t see any nepalis weapons. :(
And Durbar Square is not everything u can see in Patan. One can walk around, and find a plenty of temples and hitis(traditional nepali water tanks) along the narrow streets. Most of these are situated north of Durbar Square. I took a walk around with my bike and I managed to lose my chain locker. For a while I had to keep my eyes on my bike. Until I found a shop where they had bicycle chain lockers. I bought one and my bike was safe again.
The Golden Temple Buddhist monastery is not far away from Durbar Square. The doorway is flanked by a pair of lions male and female. The male male lion had a big sexual organ painted in pink.
It was almost the dusk and I decided to return to Khatmandu. Patan is very close to Khatmandu being separated only by Bagmati River. It was a rush hour and the traffic vas very very slow and was already dark outside when I arrived in Thamel. And Thamel is not the best place for cycling in an evening. The streets are narrow and there are a lot of pedestrians, and bikes everywhere. A nice walk through these narrow streets full with shops and restaurants during the evening is the best. So, I went to my hotel gave back the bike had a shower and came back to Thamel. The power cuts are very common here, but almost all of the shops have a diesel generator. That’s way even if there is no electricity one can hardly notice this. A tasty chicken steak with French fries and vegetables salad and a cold beer on a roof top restaurant. What else do u want more after a hot day of cycling around Khatmandu Valley?
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