Bhaktapur

The Kathmandu valley was once split into three kingdoms ruled by three separate kings who each tried to outdo the other. The result is three big squares stuffed full of elaborate temples within 10km of each other. We went to Bhaktapur at the weekend to see the third square. We had to pay US$15 each to enter the old city, which considering the average income in Nepal is US$20 a month is a high price to pay. We wanted to get our money's worth, so have extended our ticket until May at no additional cost!

This was the grandest temple. It is the tallest temple in Nepal, and is also one of the tallest buildings in Nepal which goes to show just how seriously they take their temple building, and how undeveloped the country is - the building is about 8 storeys high.

We tried to take some artistic photos of one of the other temples

And we like this one which shows just how congested the square is with temples and tourists!

There is lots of graphic erotic carvings on the temples, which we didn't expect to see. This one made us laugh!

This intricately carved "peacock window" is the most photographed window in Asia!

But we preferred "chicken window"!!!

....simple things!

We also went to pottery square to see all the pottery drying in the sun:

A deserved cup of coffee:

And this was the view from our lovely guest house Heart of Bhaktapur which was a guest house upstairs and a children's home for disabled children downstairs. All the profits from the guest house go into running the children's home. The rooms were each named after one of the children in the home, and there were photographs of the children and artwork all around the guest house. Unfortunately we didn't get to meet the children this time, but if we get to go back we certainly will do.