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Little Girl - Nagarkot, Nepal
  Nagarkot, historically, used to serve as the summer retreat for the royal family and many other aristocrats from Kathmandu. While the town offers great views of the mountains, there are few monasteries or temples. However, Nagarkot makes for a good short hike, one in which you walk on the ridge of the valley. It has also become a popular stop for mountain bikers. You can catch a bus for the one-hour ride to Nagarkot from Bhaktapur, Nepal. A taxi will cost about a hundred times more. Most visitors, however, drive up, spend the night at one of the moderately-priced lodges and walk down by any number of routes. From Nargarkot, it takes just less than three hours to walk down a well-worn trail through several villages to Bhaktapur. Alternatively, in three hours time, you can hike down to Changu Narayan, one of the most magnificent temples in the valley and designated a World Heritage site by UNESCO. The present structure was built in the early 1700's, but at the entrance of the main shrine are stone tablets with the inscriptions dating to 400 AD. Facing the entrance is a 5th century statue of a human-faced Garuda, the mount of Vishnu, who is also called Narayan. There are many other fine statues from the Licchavi era, as well as several from the more recent Malla period, including that of King Bupatindra and his queen in a gilded enclosure from the 17th century. Changu Narayan is also patronised by the Valley's Buddhists who worship Lokeswar (another name for Vishnu). If you plan to stay in Nagarkot, you might want to do so at The Fort. This is the first boutique resort built in traditional architecture. It offers panoromic views from its rooms and facilities and boasts an organic garden of various trees and species of flowers. | |
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