De nagarkot a Changu Narayan: Nepal at ground
I did not want to leave Nepal without kicking the hills surrounding Kathmandu, not look out of their villages, the daily lives of the people of tillage, Legion here. It is an undemanding walk, of those now called trekking, from Nagarkot and Changu Narayan Temple. A real treat.
Nagarkot rises 2.300 meters on one of the hills surrounding the valley Kahmandú, a 30 kilometers east of the capital (more than two hours drive including exit jam). The place has become fashionable for tourists to watch the sunrise, as the views of the Himalayas, from the Dhaulagiri until Kanchenjunga passing the Annapurna and Everest as major milestones, are very promising for those who have no chance to enter the Tibet. So Nagarkot is poblándose of modest hotels, cheap none, with views of the mountains as a business card. The people have nothing to review except the environment, a leafy forest invites you to walk by around. And that's what we do after the usual beers to gauge the hotel, the Country Villa (log cabins, rustic). We walked down the runway with only the company of armed soldiers patrolling the area submachine search of the Maoist guerrilla shift.
The next morning we plan to walk to the sanctuary Changu Narayan. Before, yes, must meet the dawn ritual, doomed beforehand because monsoon season here and clouds tend to spoil the view. Yet, got up at half past five to see the Himalayas immersed in the haze. There in the distance, only emerge almost 7.000 meters Dorje Lakhpa. But the early start offering other incentives. On the terrace of a hotel near English receives a holy man with gymnastic exercises on relaxation. It is his particular morning workout before heading into a cave where he lived a reputed shadu to find your intimate Nirvana.
At eight in the morning we drive down the road Bhaktapur, former capital of the Kingdom of Nepal. In a curve we stop and take a small path to the right of the track that loses downhill through a forest of conifers. We passed small villages while rice and corn crops (planting when, lack of water, can not grow rice). We passed children in uniform and necktie sky-blue bus waiting to them about the school. At the edge of the brick houses are left to dry on, rags, cereal that women have ripped ears patiently, and chili. Oxen are part of the landscape. One is refreshing in a quagmire, trying to escape the sweltering heat, while its owner works the land with a plow. And these mammals are not used as draft animals out of respect for Shiva, the main Hindu deity, it has in the nearby Pashupatinath its principal place of worship. Formerly, serfs worked the land and gave half to the feudal lord harvest without any ownership rights over crops. Now, however, Bijay tells, acquire ownership of half of the land they work.
On the terrace of a hotel near English receives a holy man with gymnastic exercises on relaxation. It is his particular morning workout before heading into a cave where he lived a reputed shadu to find your intimate Nirvana.
We shorten the journey by turning off shortcuts sunshine punishes us go back a slope back while breathing moisture. Shortly before reaching the Temple Khali, (a small shrine on a hillside full of stairs), he passed a village, a buffalo is pissed perverse eyes watching us and we have to take refuge on the porch of a house until the animal moves on and we can return to the path. Peasant Life in Nepal at ground.
Two hours and forty-five minutes after leaving Nagarkot we Changu Narayan, suffocating heat and begging a beer that is soon to arrive in the first bar that we face. The hike is not demanding, but heat multiply the force.
Changu Narayan, a spectacular beamed Pagoda, was built in the fourth century, but there is almost nothing that (just a few bronze and stone sculptures, Garuda including one with a snake coiled around his neck), it was rebuilt in 1702 by fire. Couple of elephants, winged lions and griffins guard the entrances to the temple, a visit that catches us pretty tired and looking for a shade to shelter from the heat. The surrounding area is full of sculptures. The story of one particular attracts attention, of Vikrantha, a reincarnation of Vishnu. Legend, this god was reincarnated as a midget to wrest an evil universe, who begged to grant him a wish: extension of land that could cover with three steps. Vikrantha The demon agreed and became a giant, three huge jumps, became the new owner of the cosmos. Who could have that stride to escape this unbearable sauna.
Comments (1)
juan T.
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How interesting your blog, I have followed it from the beginning. I love what Nepal has. This magazine is very good, I love to read
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