Visas and Vishnus

So we've been really busy in the last few days; exploring new parts of Kathmandu, learning how to circumvent the all-too-polite scam artists, discovering the Samosa Queen and her tasty, flaky delicacies. Thus far, the theme of the trip has been striding confidently into unknown territory; permitting our sharp wits and destiny to guide us, and so far so good.

Here's a little history for everyone: in 1482 the Kathmandu Valley was split into three kingdoms: Kathmandu, Patan, and Bhaktapur. Since unification, the best way to see evidence of the former kingdoms is from the Durbar (or Palace) Squares, which are filled with beautiful (and often enormous) temples, shrines,  and palaces. These buildings look like something straight out of Indiana Jones, like there should be armies of undead warriors running through the streets or something.

So far we've walked to the Patan and Kathmandu Durbar Squares, both with incredible and unique Newari architecture. We saw the building that houses the Kwari Devi, a living goddess who is a prepubescent girl that waves from her window and rides a yellow chariot around the city only 6 times a year. After puberty starts, she gets kicked back into mortality, and a new Devi is sought after. In Patan we walked through a fantastic museum that explained much about Hindi and Buddhist art from the last 1000+ years, accompanied by magnificent examples. We learned about some of the gods, but there are 33 million of them so....

We're having dinner with our friend from the flight over, Prakriti, and her family tonight, so we've got to go grab them a gift. Later!