Day 147: Patan (Nepal) – November 11th

By 5am, the locals have started their day already. Our room, facing outward onto a small tole (city square) with a few temples, Hindu pilgrims were busy paying their homage to their respective deities. And since it is Deepavali at the moment, it seems like everything is working on a slightly different schedule. We managed to block out the noise and slept in on the comfy tatami-style beds.

Breakfast was decent, but eating in the courtyard was a great little treat. The courtyard was square in shape but sunken by about knee-high, so you can comfortably sit on the edge and eat on the table provided. The morning glow shun atop the exquisite wooden carvings made the whole place sparkle in dark mahogany tones. Unfortunately, they were all booked up for the day and we had to pack up and move to another cheapo hotel. No more luxury!

We started off our day exploring Durbar Square, and spent quite a lot of time inside the Patan Museum, a collection of the area’s many interesting artifacts. It also helped that they have a lot of explanations in English on all their topics, making it easier for us tourists to make sense of what the heck we’re looking at. It was another field-trip day again, and the typical museum-style silence was quickly smashed to pieces by the bus loads of elementary school students. We were hit with a few swarms of kids, but the cutest part though was all the kids would say “HELLO!” to us. One kid even put out his hand for a handshake, which we politely shook, but then about 8 other kids did the same. Haha, kids are fun.

Stopping our sightseeing, we walked out to the “expat” area of Patan which is filled with great looking restaurants spanning from Japanese, Italian to even a Korean bakery! We ate at a Singapore restaurant, and according to Jiajia their food was quite authentic! Authentic Singapore food, in small towns of Nepal. Strange, but delicious!

In the afternoon, we took a walking tour of the town following a page off of the Lonely Planet. Surprisingly nobody seems to like these tours, as they’re rather interesting. Walking off the main streets, you wander from neat little Buddhist temples to small shrines devoted to all of the various Hindu deities. In general, anything with historical significance is generally religious in nature. And it’s pretty crazy, as you have these temples/shrines built before the 1500s, but people are selling fruits and veggies right at it’s footsteps!