Bhaktapur-Nagarkot
First trip to India, January 2015
We decided to get up early so we could make it to Nagarkot. It’s very close, just 20 kilometers away. They say Nagarkot offers wonderful views of the Himalayas, and on a clear sunny day you can even make out Everest. But we weren’t very lucky with the weather.
In the morning it was still slightly sunny, until the clouds completely covered the whole sky.
We found the bus to Nagarkot without any trouble, near the artificial reservoir where we had been on our first day. We arrived just in time and managed to get seats. By the time it was due to depart, the bus was packed with people. Volchiy gave up his seat to a Nepali woman with a small child, who looked sadly and silently out our window…
The roads in Nepal are very narrow; I don’t know how the bus driver managed to pass other vehicles on the road. Nagarkot is located at an altitude of 1,900 m, so we kept going up and up.
We passed a real pine forest…. I hadn’t seen pine trees for so long that my heart tightened — it was a forest just like in Ukraine. I remembered how we lit a campfire, grilled sausages, and the smell of pine needles….
We kept going until the very end, when everyone else had already gotten off. We didn’t really know where to go. The mountains were completely out of sight, only fog and terraced gardens were visible. People were walking past, clearly heading somewhere with purpose — almost everyone had a bag of food. We thought we should go that way too.
About two kilometers of an easy climb later, we found ourselves near some kind of iron tower; there must be a beautiful view from it, but not today…
However, it seemed that the weather was no obstacle for the Nepalese; they sat down on the ground and had a picnic. There were a lot of people here, and then we realized that today was a day off, and also Valentine’s Day. That’s why so many young couples were coming and walking here.
At the foot of the tower, they sell tea and delicious cornmeal bagels… I remembered how, long ago in childhood, I loved corn porridge with milk in Khust… A Nepali woman skillfully fried round bagels, pouring the batter straight into the hot oil through the neck of a plastic bottle.
The clouds were gathering, and it was getting darker and colder. We returned to the bus stop, got on the bus, and headed back to Bhaktapur.
By the lake, we ate chebureki.
Then, for the fourth time, it seemed, we walked down the street where they sold wonderful wooden birds. The vendors were already greeting us with smiles. Volchy really wanted one, but no one wanted to sell it to us cheaply… At least 50 dollars, no matter what.
When it got dark, the unlit Durbar Square reminded me of some computer game where you have to make your way through mazes in the dark.. The cheap café we found in the square and where we had dinner yesterday had closed early today. We had to have dinner at our hotel – it turned out expensive, and the portion was small.
