One door closes, another opens

Pimbahal is a lively district half a kilometer north of Patan’s durbar square. On our brief return to Kathmandu, our hotel for a night was in this area, and I spent some time wandering through it looking at people and the doors that they presented to the world. Unlike Thamel which was full of tourists and tourist services, Pimbahal had very few foreigners.

You enter Pimbahal through the ceremonial gate called Patan Dhoka. It seemed strange that this is supposed to be the main road to Patan’s Darbar Square, since there is only a maze of narrow lanes behind the gate, each just wide enough for a car. If you had the misfortune of meeting even a motorbike coming the other way, the two of you would have to do a bit of manoeuvring to get past each other.

I liked the style of doors in Kathmandu. In many of the lanes the ground floor of every house was a line of shops with blue, green, or red shutters across the front. Then there were the more ornate doors, individually carved panels and with a dark polish. Finally, several cafes and shops had modern glass doors. Quite a variety in these narrow streets.