10-12 noviembre

bhaktapur

can it get any more beautiful, any more friendly, any more peaceful than this?
the sun sets out over the ageless city and its walls surround us with their mystery.
and it rains. and it feels good.

* * *





i wake up to the sound of the puja bells, just as the sun is rising. there are no cars in bhaktapur, and life evolves pretty much the way it did a thousand years ago.
i stroll in the early light as people go about their rituals, making offerings to the zillion gods or setting their stalls with fruits and vegetables (oh the beautiful eggplants!).
being saturday the streets are full of kids playing badmington with makeshift rackets and balls, or simply roaming, looking for fun.
i find my pleasure sitting down outside a chai-wallah's shop and watching the day gently unfold.
the smell of incense, the bright colours, the sweet girls walking by... (and the occasional cow, of course).

* * *

jari and i make our way up to nagarkot on the top of a bus, where one could see the himalayas if the skies were not covered by clouds, and then walk back down, through hills and forrests and villages and fields to the old temple of changu narayan, and back again to bhaktapur, where i get a thanka made, and then back home to freak st, at night, this time inside the bus.