Patan, once a fiercely independent city-state just a few kilometers from Kathmandu, is now a superb area within the city. I chose to get a shared taxi which you sort of hop on/hop off like a bus. It was reasonably easy, with the only issue being finding one going in the correct direction in the first place.
Once in Patan I was accosted by a shouty local who demanded that I give her money and buy a city ticket. I was confused at this because I thought that you only needed to buy a ticket for the location in which you intend to get to (In my case, Durbar Square), but it turns out that once you reach the ticket booth you must buy a ticket there. Once this was sorted I paid and made my way through the walking tour in the Lonely Planet.
I really enjoy doing the walking tours as they always seem to take you around some of the really interesting areas and you get to see the people in a more relaxed setting.
As I was doing my walking tour I kept bumping into a couple who were also following the same walking tour in their Lonely Planet. In the end we joined forces and stomped along together.
Once at Durbar Square we (the other two are called Julian and Tabatha and they are from Brisbane in Australia) got lunch together in a nice cafe overlooking the square. The conversation flowed and it was really nice to meet people from the other side of the world who I seemed to get on well with. We followed the walking tour together and visited Patan museum along the way. It is an interesting place full of religious art and the building used to be the residence of the Malla Kings.
We quickly resumed our walking tour of the city and, once finished, got a taxi home to Thamel together. Our little group went for coffee and then dinner together, first in Cafe Gallery and then La Dolce Vita, two lovely restaurants.
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