Krishna's House

Glad to escape the hubbub of KTM for a few days.  Maureen arrived and we headed to Bhaktapur for a few days.  Bhaktapur is one of three medieval city-states in the KTM valley (KTM and Patan being the other two) that were united by one of the Malla kings in th 16th century.  This home stay was rated very highly on  TripAdvisor and we were very pleased. 

Mary and Maureen relaxing on the roof top deck after a hard day of sightseeing.

Our hosts were great and Ajaya was particularly helpful since he also owns a trekking service.  He gave us great suggestions for what to see in Bhaktapur and a good warm-up hike (see next post).  He was very generous with his time and information.   Shared views on:                                  

• the government - Maoist coalition is still struggling after 5 years to put together a new constitution and peace plan;                                                
• changes in Nepali family life - He grew up in large extended family living situation.  He talked about inviting 300-400 people to weddings and other special events - and that's just family.His two teenage kids go to boarding school in Patan and he worries that they have lost the sense of family he had since they are being raised more in a nuclear family situation.  His kids want to go abroad to study, he wants them to follow their dreams;
• role of his mother - She managed all the decisions on the building and remodeling of Krishna's House.  She died fairly suddenly 5 years ago and he realized he had never made any of the social decisions - his mother had managed them all;
• trekking - surprised we were doing the Poon Hill/Annapurna Base Camp (ABC)  trek in 10 days but was very encouraging nonetheless;
• Hindu ritual - shared the meaning of the rituals associated with the festival for protecting the house. 



Maureen, Mary and Hazel from Australia



Central courtyard