Nepal and Tibet

We finally arrive at Durbar Square. "Durbar" means "palace". Ancient palaces in Nepal are usually flanked by a public square. There is also a durbar square in both Patan and Bhaktapur in front of the old palaces there. Of course, the king does not live in these palaces any more. There was a new palace built about a hundred years ago, which is now the home of the new king, King Birendra's brother. The square, which is now a World Heritage site, is surrounded by a cluster of very interesting buildings. As well as the old royal palace, there are numerous fascinating temples, the Kasthamandap (House of Wood) and the Kumari Chowk, which has the most fascinating story of all. This square, which serves a three-storey building, is small and enclosed. The windows are beautifully carved and its doors are guarded by huge stone lions. It is the home of the kumari, a young girl whom the people believe is a living goddess or a reincarnation of a goddess. These little girls are chosen in a similar way to the Dalai Lama, with very rigid tests. They remain a kumari until they have a major bleeding, whether this bleeding is the perfectly natural bleed at the beginning of puberty, or whether it is accidental. When this occurs, she ceases to be the kumari and another one has to be chosen. The kumaris are naturally very adored and well protected. They receive no formal education. They are not allowed outside the palace except to take part in one procession a year. These pampered girls become very spoiled, so spoiled that no man wants to marry them so what is their fate? Usually they live on in the palace taking care of the new kumaris destined to a life of creating another spoiled little girl. We were allowed to enter the quiet, inner courtyard of the kumari's palace but can see no sign of life behind the carved timber shutters, and can hear no sounds of children from within.

Merchants by the hundreds were trying to push their wares onto us in the vicinity of Durbar Square. We are told that because of the recent unrest in Nepal, there are very few visitors to the city so trade for the locals has been very quiet. We are very travel weary and want to escape back to the hotel but we have walked a long way and do not feel like dealing with the hawkers so we opt to hire rickshaws. We are advised to take a rickshaw each as we are much bigger than the Nepalese and the cost is so low that it is quite affordable. It also gives more locals some business. We all rattle off down the streets, dodging cars, other rickshaws, children, women cooking beside the road, puddles and a variety of animals.

Back at the hotel, it is time for another shower. We are hot and sticky after our two-hour walk. We have dirty feet as we wore sandals through the muddy, slushy streets. The shower in the Garuda is simply a shower nozzle in the wall. The whole room is saturated by the time we are clean again. The air conditioning seems not to be working so we are hot again almost immediately. We dress for dinner and walked to a restaurant, "K.C's", which our tour leader, suggested earlier we meet at for our evening meal. We go to the bottle shop just around the corner from our hotel, where we find Australian cask wine for sale. We, however, buy a bottle of French Merlot at a very reasonable price to have with dinner. We are so tired by this time, we can hardly think. I have not had a wink of sleep since Thursday night at home. We share our wine with others at our table. The meals we have are very nice. Robert has steak, which we are told is really buffalo, as here in a Hindu country, there is no beef to be had. My chicken is very nice too but all I can think about is bed so back to the Garuda we go to the beds, which we discover feel like cement slabs. Cement slabs or not, nothing will keep us awake tonight!