Our last Nepali stop

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  Bhaktapur, Nepal
Saturday, March 14, 2009

We really felt sorry for the taxi driver who took us to Bhaktapur since the roads, if one can call them roads, are terrible, almost non existent. Luckily we arrived in less than one hour.  Once at Bhaktapur gate, we paid the fee, again charged only to tourist, of USD 10!

Bhaktapur is famous for its numerous temples, sculptured court yards, squares, and water tanks.  All buildings are encrusted with wood and stone carvings, a lovely ancient place.  We  found a pretty decent accommodation complete with towels and toilet paper (which is quite a rarity here) and since the airport is located midway between Kathmandu and here we decided to spend our last 3 days Nepali days in this town:  walking around the streets, taking pictures, reading and eating;  Perfect days if not for the numerous people asking to be our guide, or trying to practice their English /Italian speaking fluency with us.  We tried to find hidden coves perched high on the temples to stay undisturbed but still they climbed up there for a 'chat'!!!!

Overall our Nepali experience was great and I think it would be hard to forget the
- the Dal Bat - the traditional lentil based meal - where you can just keep asking for more.  Good and healthy, but still u need a break from it.
- the short instances when you can actually enjoy the electricity, since the majority of the time in all Nepal is without power 

Nonetheless our last day in Nepal was similar to our first day i.e. horrendous - it all started with the agreed taxi not showing up cause we offered a too cheap price.  Thus we ended up at the taxi stand furiously haggling over a price and pressed by time.  A guy finally accepted our offering price, being all our left Nepali rupees (which was more than enough according to our guidebook) and we hastily shuffled inside his mini van only to be stuck in an enormous traffic jam due to the building of a new road.  Our driver conducted playstation like manovers and finally stopped us infront of the airport just 10mins after our scheduled reporting time.  At the airport the nightmare wasn't over...once again foreigners were being charged a new hefty surprise departure tax.  Conveniently the ATM was not working and it was either a cash advance transaction at an unknown charge or foreign exchange at a high commission.  Jesmar and other travelers didn't take this issue lightly and made quite a scene.  In countries like this there is not much option if you want to get on the plane you must pay whatever government says!  So we made our way to the departure lounge thinking all is over....that is until we arrived at the security check.  It seems that Nepal airport has different hand luggage rules - they did not notice our bottled water but instead wanted us to throw away all our spare batteries!!!!  Well, after all, without these stories it won't be an adventure : - >>

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