We’ve been kicking around the idea of traveling to Bhaktapur for a few days. We’re trying to avoid the expense of another flight. There are no trains. The bus to Kathmandu is posted as a ten-hour trip, but has been known to take hours longer and has rattled and even unhinged seasoned travelers that we know. The mostly unpaved H04 road is legendary in Nepal. Legendary snarled traffic. Legendary potholes. Legendary mud.
Our friend Peter came up with a compromise solution which is his special skill: hire a driver with a newish 4-wheel drive high-clearance vehicle who promises to stop for food and photos and we split the cost. Done and dusted. The only fly in the soup is that our innkeeper at the Orchid Hotel warned that early in the morning we’ll run into the tourist buses, but how bad could that be?
The problem with the road to Bhaktapur is it appears they are trying to pave the unpaved bits and maybe widen it too, all while you and everyone else are trying to drive on it. Some Nepalese smiled and proudly told us, “Come back in two years and you will be amazed.” After a couple of hours on the road we all agreed twenty years might even be optimistic.
Things went smoothly in the morning, but no final appearance of Fishtail and our Himalayan friends. Immediately, while passing the airport, we ran into school buses that were not fond of pulling off the road to swallow the kiddies. The buses behind would try to leapfrog the one stopped to pickup a new load of kids. It was a mess but our driver remained stoic and calm.
Out of town things began to deteriorate. Between tourist buses, construction vehicles, mud, and far too many cars, things were slowing down quite a bit. And getting bumpy.
After sitting still in a line of vehicles for a long while, without a word our driver turned the truck off and went back to watching a Bollywood drama on his phone.
Eventually we started to move again, surmising that some construction issues were afoot.
This was the pattern of our day, except for the occasional snack and comfort stop.
At Anbu Khaireni we stopped for a few photos
We still had to work our way through the mountains, then around the constantly constipated traffic of Kathmandu.
This is Nepal. There are no ring roads, and Bhaktapur lies about an hour or so beyond Kathmandu.
We could feel things constrict as we approached the Old Town of Bhaktapur. It had taken us just over eight hours.
Bhaktapur is a restricted UNESCO site and requires a pass, 1800 rupees whether you stay for a day or a month. We got a long term pass which required some lengthy paperwork.
Our hotel is right in the heart of the old town on Taumadhi Square. While we passengers were now legal to pass through the gate, sadly our driver had to turn back. It was schlepping time and we unloaded the roller duffles and started to hunt down the Rupakot Hotel and Rooftop Restaurant.
The walkways are carefully paved with cobblestones and bricks but they’re incredibly old and with all the earthquakes some shifting may have occurred. The rolling duffels did their usual flop over trick on the uneven streets which made dodging the thousands of maniacs intent on skewering us with their speeding scooters quite scary. Funny that the authorities are so careful to regulate visitors but apparently any idiot can speed through this amazing UNESCO site on a motorbike at breakneck speed, scattering people out of their way.
With Marce navigating we found our wonderful old hotel and our room on the fifth floor. It was a long but interesting day of travel and we now have an amazing ancient city to explore.
