Day 5 - Jess

We were out of the hotel at 9am with our suitcases put in storage for the night while we go to Nagarkot. There was a 45 minute drive to Bhatkapur, as soon as we got off the bus there were souvenir shops with Nepalese themed bags. 

First we went to Durbar square where there was a shiva temple, here we learned that the more pairs of animals that lead to the temple entrance means the god is more important. The square looked similar to the square we saw yesterday in Kathmandu except this had more open space in the centre, in the square there is a bell which used to be for making announcements and a statue of the king of Bhatkapur. 

Throughout the town there are many shelters these are used for people to rest and socialise with each other. On the side of the square there is a palace of 55 windows, the reason for this is because it is said that the king when it was built had 55 wives, the back of the building was partly damaged in the 2015 earthquake so has had to be rebuilt, we went through to a courtyard through a golden gate to see the oldest wooden carved door in Nepal which serves as the entrance to a Hindu temple. 

On our walk to the temple we saw statues which were life sized. We walked through some more squares and found ourselves at a traditional pottery wheel we then walked on to the pottery square where usually there are many people making pottery out of the clay from the area, there was just one person making pottery who was the only woman in Nepal that makes pottery was making some pottery. 

 We then walked to Duttatraya square and on our way we saw some remaining consequences of the 2015 earthquake as some buildings had been replaced by rubble we learned that the locals decided it would be cheaper to build new houses in the rice fields instead of rebuilding where they originally lived as it would be cheaper, we then walked down a side street to a paper factory. 

Then we had lunch at a restaurant next to the square where most of us had chicken burgers. We then did some shopping and walked back to the bus for our hour drive to Nagarkot. Once we got to Nagarkot we took some time to settle in and familiarise ourselves with our surroundings before heading to the rooftop terrace to watch the sunset. 

After this we went for a swim in the pool which was an icy 20°c and relaxed in the warm jacuzzi before getting some tea. Before we went to bed we did some stargazing as the sky was clear and even saw some magical shooting stars and of course as per usual we played some card games.

Jess