Travel and Tourism: Durbar Square

Sunday, April 26, 2015

Kathmandu, Some Photos Before and After the Earthquake

I am very sad to see the huge destruction in Kathmandu and other places in Nepal after the magnitude 7.9 earthquake yesterday. I am glad that all my Nepalese friends there were safe, but they were not exactly fine. They could not go home yesterday and have to stay in open areas, in case a round of strong after shocks would shake the ground again.

Below are some before-after photos of Durbar Square, Kathmandu. These two photos were posted and reshared by some friends in fb, and were also used by a NYT article today.

Upper photo from my camera, lower photo from Bigyan Prajapati; not my friend but his photos were shared by some friends in fb. My good friend Charu Chadha of Media 9, which publishes Business 360 and World of Women (WOW) magazines, toured me for half day after I came back from Pokhara.

Below, same photo sources as above, From my camera, upper photo, and from Bigyan, lower photo.

My lone solo photo that day. Charu insisted that I should have at least one.

See also my previous articles about Kathmandu and Nepal in this blog:

January 2015: Shangrila Hotel Pokhara, Kathmandu to Pokhara by plane, My great friend Charu, Media 9 People in KTM, Tribhuvan Airport, Grand Hotel KTM.

February 2015: Durbar Square, Swayambhu Temple, Kathmandu from the Air.

Thursday, February 12, 2015

Durbar Square, Kathmandu

This is definitely a famous tourist site in Kathmandu as it is within the city center. It's a wide plaza not far from the old Royal Palace. One can just walk to it from the public market, the tourist area, other famous landmarks in the city center.

Now I do not know the names of each of these structures. I just took photos that afternoon of January 13, 2015, where my good friend in Kathmandu, Charu Chadha, toured me by foot. There was a "banda" or strike that day in the city anyway, so no taxi to ride.

Being unfamiliar with the Buddhist culture, history and religion, I found some of those structures to be "eerie" looking. Like this one. Forgive me, my Nepalese and Buddhist friends for this impression.