Trip to Bhaktapur

After being in the village the whole time, I went to Bhaktapur for two nights.

The journey there by public bus was an experience in itself. Since there are no fixed bus stops or bus travel times, you simply stand on the side of the road and wait for the next bus to come. The arm is stretched out as a sign that you want to get in. The bus becomes more and more full over time. The bumpy and winding ride is accompanied by traditional music, which echoes loudly throughout the bus. There was also a toilet break on the way to Bhaktapur. I watched as a mother placed her baby in the arms of a stranger so she could go to the toilet. The child remained in the strange woman's arms for the entire journey. Another exciting thing about bus travel is that there are no bus companies here. All you need is a bus, a driver and someone who collects the money during the journey and you can register to take a specific route. It is not surprising that this approach does not necessarily reflect the quality of the vehicle and the driving style of the bus driver. But that's exactly what makes the bus ride an experience. It's just part of hitting your head every now and then, driving close to the edge and just getting a good shake...

When I arrived in Bhaktapur in the afternoon, I first went looking for wool because I wanted to stock up a bit with it so I could crochet at home in the village. In the evening I enjoyed the beautiful panorama of the temples against the dark blue evening sky.

The next day I wanted to buy souvenirs for friends and family. Since I didn't have any sense of the currency here when I arrived in Nepal, I didn't want to do it right away. I also had respect for acting, which is always something that makes me very uncomfortable. For this reason, I was quite happy to see how I was getting better each time.

On my third day in Bhaktapur, I met with the teachers from my school. They took a special bus to Bhaktapur to have a picnic nearby and picked me up in the city. Then we went to the mountains surrounding Bhaktapur. In the search for the perfect picnic spot, the bus also made a dangerous turning maneuver in the middle of a narrow street to the left and right of the abyss. So it was exciting again. But after we finally found a good place for our picnic and unpacked all the things we had brought with us, such as water, gas, food, speakers and seat cushions, we danced. I felt like I was thrown into a Bollywood film. After a short period of observation, I finally dared to dance along. Then we cooked and ate and cooked and ate again. This program was occasionally interrupted for short dance sessions. It was really very interesting to observe this kind of teacher excursion. However, I asked myself why we drove particularly close to Bhaktapur for this, since we also have many mountains around the village. However, it became clear that this trip was something very special for the colleagues because they had dressed up especially for the day. A few meters from our picnic spot was a large red jug. Photos were taken for over an hour from every perspective and with a wide variety of combinations of people. In the late afternoon we started our journey home.