The Stadhuis, or city hall, was built right in the center of the city to serve as the city's administrative center. It was by far the grandest civic building ever built, which is why it caught Napoleon's eye. When he took over Holland after about a three hour war, he made his brother the king and converted the city hall into the royal palace. That entailed boarding up the enormous rooms used for public function, like those shown here. The biggest room is the Citizen's Hall, where the citizens (well, the rich ones anyway) would gather to debate important decisions. The smaller, more ornate one is the Burgomaster's Hall (yes, like the Burgermeister Meisterburger that some of us remember from Frosty the Snowman), where the city council governed. The king just used the top floor of the building, and ripped down the medieval weighing station that sat opposite the building for centuries because it blocked his view. It's still used as a royal palace, although the current queen hates it and always stays at her palace in the Hague. This is understandable, since the palace is just plopped in the middle of the huge Dam square, where hooligans and drunks party and puke all night long, a decidedly unroyal ambience.

We made another stop at a roadside stall selling Somchai's favorite noodles in the whole world. It's amazing that he hadn't been there in many years, but the old lady stirring the big vats of noodles is still in the same spot in the road, and they still taste great. We then visited the Royal Palace, of course, which wasn't exactly Versailles. It was built around 1900, and the royal family lived there until the Communists took over in 1975, whereupon they were moved to prison camps and died there. The interior of the palace is fairly depressing, small pokey rooms with some pretty standard furnishings. Some of the rooms look like the All in the Family set, where Archie and Edith used to bicker all day long. The temple on the grounds is actually nicer, and is a good example of a Lao temple. As you can see, the distinguishing feature of a Lao temple is the elaborate, multi tier roof, which is much more deeply sloping than in other countries, often sloping almost to the ground.

Bhaktapur's Durbar Square isn't really up to much. It's of course host to the royal palace, that wall of buildings in the photo, which is now the National Art Gallery. The Golden Gate, pictured but ignored in the previous post, is part of the palace compound, and one of Nepal's most famous artworks. The rest of the square contains the usual assortment of shrines and temples, but overall it lacks the architechtural fireworks of its competitors. It also isn't much used by locals, as it sits at one end of the city rather than the traditional center.

Skipping the rest of the Square, we'll move now to the Royal Palace, which like it's Kathmandu counterpart, dominates the square. Most of the palace is closed to the public, although part of it has been converted into the Patan museum, which is heads and shoulders above any other museum in Nepal. In addition to seeing many of the rooms of one wing of the palace, the museum is the best place to see the artistry of the Nepalese, well lit and with detailed explanations in contrast to most haphazard, dark and unlabeled museums in the rest of the country. The pagoda pictured here is locked, except for a festival once a year in which a priest fills a pipe with pot and leaves it for the previously mentioned missing hermit king. Finally the picture of the window highlights both the elaborate handiwork of the local craftsmen, and the Michael Jackson-esque approach to child care.

Wealthy Nepalis live in the Eastern suburbs, which are a bit more spacious than the central city. Durbar Marg is the main street in this area, which leads to the new Royal Palace. The palace was built in the 1960's, and it really shows. The overly ornate white gate at least looks royal, but I think they ran out of money when it came time to building the palace itself. That blue building with the space agey protrusions is the palace, which looks like a terrible place to live. There are many theories why the crown prince massacred the royal family here a few years ago, but I think he probably snapped from the aggressive ugliness of the palace he was to inherit. In case you're confused, no, we weren't invited to a pool party by the king, I just threw the unrelated pool picture in since it comes from the nearby Yak and Yeti hotel. This was the only normal hotel in Kathmandu for many years and is still the favorite for many travelers. The garden and pool complex at back is definitely a nice respite from the city but the hotel didn't seem very nice, just the usual business hotel.