Going medieval in Bhaktapur

 

Bhaktapur is a medieval town where little has changed in the last thousand years.  While the year in Nepal may be 2068, this hamlet of brick and chaos makes that collection of digits seem arbitrary at best.  The city's narrow lanes are flanked by leaning brick towers and the savageness of its back alleys is told in goat slaughter and starving dogs.  Truth be told, it is not a place for a first date.  You bring her here AFTER you marry her. 

 Believe it or not, this pond was filled with fish 

 An old place 

 That dog may have eaten my face had it not been for that chain.  Scared the shit out of my brain.

 Challenge - Try to find something in this picture that is not wood or brick 

 A still used well 

 The well 

 Kristin checks out the old digs 

 A temple 

 A game of chess 

 A doorway beckons 

 Back alley 

 Sums it up 

 Idling everywhere

 Knitting 

 Wheat 

 A bird and a doorway 

 Some stairs - likely leading to more dereliction 

 Love the architecture 

 A large prayer wheel 

 Our guide, he started every explanation with, "Okay, sir and madame..."

 Prayer wheels are a mainstay in Nepal.  It feels good to give them a spin.

 Love this picture 

 On his way to the tupperware club meeting 

 Pig banks at right 

 A van

 I never see enough dragons to sate my desire to see enough dragons 

 This room was eerily cold on a hot day.  Ghosts? fact.

 Idling just beyond the doorway 

 This man was proud of his dog's face

 Typical Bhaktapur 

 Prayer flag 

 Buds.  Maybe best.

 A square

 Definitely a different type of statue 

 Men taking a break from idling 

 Work 

 These wood carvers acknowledged me the way men acknowledge a fly in the other room

 That man with the sweaty back? Our guide.  We are very glad we hired him.  It was a very confusing place.  Something tells me city planners were not involved.

 I love these four wheeled contraptions 

 More goats 

 Even here - Coca Cola 

 Puppet 

 Carved bric a brac 

 A man waits at the end of a dark alley 

 Buildings and wheat 

 Looked like a fun game

 The city ends 

 People keep ducks as pets in Bhaktapur 

 A 5 tiered temple in the background 

 She is doing something that ends up being mustard

 School kids 

 playing tag on centuries old stupas

 The holy cow 

 Holy cow - posted up

 The monk kid sat and looked stoic while those around him played 

 Community bath 

 There was a party going on.  Cow head. Real or fake?

 People 

 These guys were doing terrible things to goats with fire 

 Some sort of fried delight 

 Bhaktapur street at noon 

 Five tiers, look upon it, and know 

 Love the Nepalese architecture 

 The Kingdom of Bhaktapur 

 Some kind of pottery square

 We have not bought one scarf yet 

 One thing that I really love about Nepal is the integration of ancient sites into the day to day function

 People just hang out 

 A bell 

 Leaving Bhaktapur 

 Kristin made me take a picture of this ritz cracker stuck to a statue's nose, definitely more of a "Boo's corner" thing 

 The classroom sounded like an insane asylum.  This kid in glasses was looking safely out of the window.

 Some color 

Overgrown bath