No Boondogglery

Today we escaped Kathmandu's pollution by putting our lives in the hands of a madman. Our young taxi driver was in a hurry to get back to sitting around aimlessly waiting for a fare. So, he weaved through traffic, playing chicken with cows, motorcyles, and, of most concern to me, large on-coming trucks. Luckily, we made it in one piece to the pedestrian town of Bakhtapur, and spent the day savouring the silence. No honking, no obnoxious diesel motors, no swearing in a language I cannot understand. Just temples, temples, and more temples. And, we got a deal, since it was 90% off if you were Indian! Shazz did the talking and thoroughly confused the suspicious ticketman with his Gujarati. I nodded away and added in a thick Indian accent "No, chap, there is no boondogglery here."

Bakhtapur is a great town. Apart from lacking traffic, it also has the highest temple in the Kathmandu Valley! We wandered the cobblestoned streets (which Shazz insisted needed an overhaul in order to improve the drainage system) and observed the locals drying out pottery, wheat stalks (for sweeps), and the grains of wheat. Of course, there was also a fair share of locals sitting around, doing nothing except staring off into the distance.

After walking around all day, we decided to really get out into the countryside and visit the hilltop temple of Chandu Naryan. This involved a tricky negotiation with a tout, who finally caved in and muttered under his breath "Indians!" Given the choice between a speedy old Datsun and a lumbering minibus, I chose the minibus since was obviously slower and would offer the driver less temptation to play chicken with oncoming buses. The temple was ok (it featured a 1500 yr old kneeling statue of Ganesh), but the views over the valley's rice paddies were incredible. As we drove through little villages, we yelled out "Namaste" to children, who responded with toothy grins and frantic, cheerful waves.

Tonight, we returned to the "More Rice, One Price" place, but Shazz did not indulge in Extra Mutton.