Newari Yala

Kathmandu - Bhaktapur - PATAN - Poon Hill - Kathmandu

Or simply Patan or Lalitpur. 😋

Patan felt like a neighborhood of Kathmandu, but it is an independent city in the south of the capital and even the third largest in Nepal. It was said to have the most beautiful Durbar Square out of the three compared to Durbar Square in Kathmandu and Bhaktapur, but we couldn't agree with that. We found the one in Bhaktapur to be the most beautiful. The square in Patan is very big and has some large pagodas and a large museum. But what we liked most about the square was that we could sneak in for free again and that there were cheap and delicious burgers there.

Otherwise, the city is very similar to the others. There were a lot of narrow alleys and courtyards. It was interesting that there was a shrine in every courtyard. If you ventured into some hidden alleyways, you could discover some interesting temples. The coolest one was the 16-meter-high "Mahabuddha Temple" with 3300 small Buddha figures in the tower and the "Golden Temple". The highlight was having witnessed a ceremony in the Golden Temple. Elderly monks in traditional attire sat in a row, and women in saris came to them and poured rice and money into bowls in front of the older monks. Occasionally, they were all in great excitement because sometimes monk children, who were still overwhelmed by the situation, came.

It was great to have witnessed this in the courtyard of the Golden Temple.

(We only visited Bhaktapur and Patan for one day each, just for a little information in between.)

Now we've had enough sightseeing for a while and we're going to retreat to the Himalayas for a few days. 😉

So see you in five days 🙋🏼‍♀️🙋🏼‍♂️