Bhaktapur

This weekend, we went to Bhaktapur. There are new pictures of the trip in the Around Kathmandu section of the photo gallery. Bhaktapur is the third major city in the Kathmandu Valley, besides Kathmandu and Patan. Wow, was it calm and pretty. It wasn't any more striking than, say, Patan, but it was just so much calmer that it was decidedly different. The brochure you get at the tourist office includes the statement, paraphrased here, 'If you travel to Asia and visit not a single other place than Baktapur Durbar Square, then the journey is well worth it'. Laying it on a little thick, guys.

It costs 750 rupee to enter the city, as it's considered to be 'a historical city' for busloads of tourists. That's about USD10. This is pretty funny, because the tourist gates that enforce the ticket thing are only at about five of the 100 roads into the tourist part of the city. They say there are random spot checks of tourists for passes,but we never got shaken down like that. Nice paper:

The Bhaktapur Durbar Square was very nice. Nini's guidebook, The Rought Guide to Nepal, which I think is much better than the flashy Lonely Planet book I have, said part of the movie Little Buddha was filmed there. The movie made a bunch of false-fronts to obscure modern buildings and paid the whole city off to close their businesses for a few days and 'look ancient'. We rented the movie last night - Keanu Reeves is the Buddha. This is not an endorsement of the film.

When you pay your 750 rupees, you get a pass that's good for one day. If you ask the man at the gate whether that can be extended, he says yes - it can be extended for up to one week on the spot. He then asks how long we would like it to be extended. We looked at him a little puzzled and said 'how about one week then?'. So he stamped it as good for one week instead of one day. Then we ask if it can be extended for longer. He responds that if you bring your passport and two passport-sized photos, you can fill out a one-page form and have it be good for one year. But neither the one-week nor the one-year no-cost extensions are advertised or offered - you have to ask.

This sort of system reminds me of getting a visa for Russia. When you get a visa for Russia, you have a number of option before you for how long the processing will take. The options are worded like 'no less than two weeks' for something like USD30, 'no more than three days' for around USD150, and 'next business day' for about USD280. Notice that the first option is not 'within two weeks', it's 'not less than two weeks'. The processing might take fifteen days, but then again, you might not get it until the Rapture - either one would be more than two weeks away. Gets you a little scared, doesn't it? Thinking about the three day option, aren't you?

We also went to the National Art Gallery, right off the Durbar Square. The brochure begins with the statement that "This museum has not been able to function as National Art Museum due to lack of space and management':