So at the heart of Nepal is this ancient city where if you go to the center it feels like you
walked into a medieval town in the Himalayas and this isn’t Kathmandu. Today we're going to explore
Bhaktapur, the old capital of Nepal.
So we're staying in a mini Resort which is at Nagorkot which is at like 2200 meters elevation so it gets a little bit chilly at night and it's right next
to the Kathmandu Valley. On the side of the street we saw this little kid plucking these things
called Himalayan berries which you can apparently just pick off the bushes and eat directly. People
asking for advice (directions). We're going to Bhaktapur which is 10 kilometers away downhill
Started raining really hard and we had to take a bit of a detour to go get some
umbrellas but now we're back on track. At the main
entrance of Bhaktapur and you can see all these Nepalese Flags. Got tickets
which is like 500 rupees for Bangladeshi citizens but 1500 for usually westerners
So we are in durbar square in Bhaktapur and durbar square essentially means the center of
a city where the king's Palace is and Bhaktapur is actually called one of the royal cities of
Kathmandu and to tell you the history of that I have to go a little further back. So Bhaktapur, Kathmandu and Patan
are some of the biggest cities in Nepal and they're all in this huge Valley called Kathmandu Valley which is
at an elevation of 1400 meters and is way below the surrounding mountains although that's still
pretty high for most of us living in other countries and it was within this Kathmandu
Valley that a lot of the early civilizations that developed in the borders of Nepal today
first started. So in the 12th century this king called Ananda Deva Malla founded the city of Bhaktapur
and he was from a family or dynasty of kings called the Malla Dynasty that essentially ruled
Nepal from the 12 held until the 18th century and in the first 300 years from the 12th to the
15th century the capital of The Nepalese Kingdom inside Kathmandu Valley was actually in Bhaktapur.
So this city was the capital city of this entire region. Then in the 15th century the kingdom
sort of split up and it split up into different kingdoms inside the Kathmandu Valley. So there
was a kingdom of Kathmandu that had its own durbar square which you should know if you've seen the
last video and right next to it there was also a kingdom of Patan with its own Durbar Square.
There's a lot more people taking pictures here than you'd usually see because it's a Saturday
and it's the weekend, everyone has their day off and wants to come somewhere scenic I guess. I see
a lot of locals around here too. So this Palace right next to Durbar square is called the 55
window Palace. So you're gonna notice there's like a beautiful building or temple in every corner of
this durbar square but you'll also notice that a lot of buildings are like broken down and
damaged and this is because of the 2015 earthquake that happened here that devastated a lot of the
infrastructure and also killed a lot of people. So this is the Siddhi Laxmi Temple which is one
of the main temples of Durbar Square. You're gonna have a very hard time finding this place or the
stairs without someone posing on it like my dad's doing right now. So the statues are supposed to be
symbols of people guarding the temple I guess and apparently with every level, the guardian
gets like 10 times stronger. There's like a sphinx and a horse and a human being and a dog at the end
Walking over to the next Square through this alley. There seems to be some sort
of function happening in the Square so I have to speak a lot louder.
Right now I’m on top of the Nyatapola Temple which is a five-story pagoda which is not only
the tallest temple in Bhaktapur but also tallest temple in all of Nepal. Even when I was climbing
the steps here, I saw a lot of the same symbology in the Guardians of the temple where each level of
the steps the Guardians get like 10 times stronger supposedly. I’m not gonna lie these steps feel a
little bit sketchy, not for people who are afraid of heights. Feels like a storm’s coming again
Now it's probably a good time to get some Momo
It's raining so hard right now but I have to move because I want to get some more stuff before this
video actually ends and there's like limited daylight left. The city actually flourished
because it was on the trading route to Tibet. There's actually a lot of people still living
inside the city right now which is why it's often called an open Museum. The city was quite remote
relatively compared to the other cities in the Kathmandu Valley like Kathmandu and Patan which
is why this has its own unique culture you can notice when you're walking around the streets
So when you go a little far away from the main Square, the touristy squares,
you start to see the places where people live you apparently also start to see some goats
So Bhaktapur is famous all across Nepal for its Pottery. There's actually this place called
Pottery Square where they make all their Pottery. Obviously, they're not doing it outside right now
because it's raining and making stuff with clay in the rain doesn't really make sense but I did find
this lady behind me who's painting some pottery in the shade. Thankfully my dad is my assistant
for the day so he's holding like two umbrellas whenever I need him to.
So we came back to Durbar Square to film the intro. We're kind of stuck in the rain now. Some coffee would be nice
So I ended up getting a mocha, not a coffee because it sounded delicious and now this
is freaking delicious but I’m gonna end the Vlog here for today. I would have liked to
show more stuff and see more stuff but looks like the weather is not going to allow me to
do that today. This is it. If you like the video don't forget to like it. If
you want to see more videos like this feel free to subscribe to my channel and follow
my page and if you want real-time travel updates feel free to follow me on Instagram
@nadironthego . I’ll catch you guys in the next video from probably somewhere else in Kathmandu
(Bangla) Can you hold this? My arm hurts (Bangla) Baby hold this please